Ban on donkey products exports
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday July 5, 2017 16:05
The ban was provoked by a series of incidents in which donkeys were brutally slaughtered to feed Chinese consumers who are more interested in the donkey skin more than other products.
Reports indicate that upon arrival in China, the skin is processed and mixed with other ingredients to produce a highly healthy product.
We have hundreds of thousands of donkeys in our streets and wilderness and there is need to have a procedure to follow before anybody can export donkey products. First, there have to be properly commissioned slaughter facilities and a proper registration of whoever wants to sell a donkey for slaughter.
There has to be a full monitoring of the population of donkeys lest we find ourselves having to import in future to close the gap that is likely to be opened in the absence of proper monitoring.
Secondly, the National Food Technology and Research Centre should take this opportunity to investigate the benefits of donkey skin; what the Chinese use it for to make it such an important product and whether we can process that product in our country.
In Africa, Botswana included, evidence shows that we are sitting on a wealth of natural resources ranging from land, minerals, flora and fauna, and others, but we are still poor.
Our lives are not improving because we allow developed countries to exploit our natural resources, which are hauled from our continent as raw materials only to be sold back to us at a very high price in processed products.
Recently there was the stealing of Devil’s Claw plant (Sengaparile), which was exported to Europe in large quantities and was processed for medicinal products.
The theft of Hoodia plant as recent as five years ago, which was also exported to Europe and Asia in large quantities are some of the few examples why we should take care of our resources and ensure that they benefit us in the form of job creation and consumption.
We should invite investors to open manufacturing factories to process our resources and produce products that can be exported to other markets that are ready for consumption.
The relocation of Diamond Trading Company from London to Gaborone three years ago is testimony that our country can produce world class products if we are serious about it.
The ban on exports of donkey products is welcome because failure to act might result in donkeys being declared endangered species in the space of less than a decade.
Today’s thought
“Nigeria is a West African nation of over 100 million energetic people. It is endowed with lots of natural resources but lacks human resources.”
- Philip Emeagwali