Ejiao, Donkey Hide, and Beauty: How a Global Cosmetics Ingredient is Fuelling Africa's Donkeys Decline

Image Credit: Nikkei Asia

I. Introduction: The Hidden Cost of Beauty

Every year, millions of consumers around the world reach for collagen supplements, anti-aging serums, and skin-brightening creams, rarely pausing to ask where the ingredients come from. For a growing number of these products, the answer begins not in a laboratory or a botanical garden, but in the dusty plains of rural Africa, where donkeys are being slaughtered at an alarming rate to meet global demand for a single ingredient: ejiao.

Ejiao (pronounced "eh-jee-ow," written 阿胶 in Chinese) is a gelatin derived from the boiled hides of donkeys. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over two thousand years, prized for its purported ability to nourish the blood, improve skin quality, and slow the aging process. In recent decades, however, ejiao has moved well beyond the apothecary shelves of China. It now appears in luxury beauty products, collagen supplements, and wellness formulations sold across East Asia, Europe, and increasingly, North America.

Africa has become the epicentre of this trade. The continent is home to the world's largest remaining donkey populations, and for international traders, it represents a vast, largely unregulated, and relatively inexpensive supply source.

The consequences have been devastating. African donkey populations are collapsing. Rural communities that depend on these animals for their livelihoods are being pushed deeper into poverty. And the continent's own nascent beauty and cosmetics industry is absorbing the shock of a supply chain crisis it did not create.

This article argues that the global demand for donkey gelatin is driving an exploitative and largely invisible trade that disproportionately harms African communities, depletes irreplaceable animal populations, and poses serious regulatory and ethical challenges for Africa's beauty and cosmetics sector. It examines the scale and mechanics of the trade, the communities it affects, the regulatory gaps that allow it to persist, and the policy interventions that could begin to address it.

II. Understanding Ejiao: What It Is and Why It Matters

Ejiao is produced by boiling donkey hides to extract collagen, which is then processed into a solid gelatin block or powder. The final product is rich in collagen peptides and amino acids, which are credited with a range of health and beauty benefits including improved skin elasticity, joint support, blood nourishment, and anti-aging effects. In traditional Chinese medicine, ejiao has been classified as a premium tonic since at least the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE), referenced in canonical texts such as the Shennong Bencao Jing as a treatment for blood deficiency and gynecological ailments.

For centuries, ejiao production was relatively contained, centered largely in Dong'e County in Shandong Province, China, where local donkey populations and mineral-rich well water were considered essential to the product's quality. But as China's middle class expanded dramatically in the early 2000s, demand for ejiao surged. The ingredient became a luxury health product, gifted during festivals, marketed to aging populations, and incorporated into mainstream skincare formulations. Between 2013 and 2019, the ejiao market in China grew from approximately 30 billion yuan to over 70 billion yuan, according to industry analyses published by the Chinese market research firm Euromonitor and corroborated by reporting from organizations including the Donkey Sanctuary and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The beauty industry's embrace of ejiao is rooted in its collagen content. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body and is responsible for the skin's firmness, elasticity, and hydration. As people age, collagen production declines, which drives interest in collagen-boosting products. Donkey-derived collagen is marketed as being particularly bioavailable and effective compared to bovine or marine collagen alternatives, a claim that has not been conclusively validated in peer-reviewed clinical literature but which carries significant commercial weight in Asian wellness markets.

Today, ejiao is found in a wide range of products, including oral collagen supplements in capsule and powder form, topical creams and serums marketed for anti-aging and skin brightening, sheet masks and beauty patches, and functional foods and beverages. The global collagen market, of which ejiao is a growing segment, was valued at approximately USD 9.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 16.7 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. A significant portion of that growth is being driven by demand for animal-derived collagen in Asia and growing Western appetite for beauty supplements.

III. Africa as the Global Supply Hub

China's domestic donkey population has plummeted by over 75 percent over the past three decades, falling from approximately 11 million in the 1990s to fewer than 2.6 million by 2019, according to FAO data. The causes are multiple: rural mechanisation reduced the working demand for donkeys, and the ejiao industry's rapid expansion consumed animals faster than they could reproduce. Donkeys have a slow reproductive cycle, typically producing only one foal per year after a twelve-month gestation period, which makes population recovery extremely difficult once depletion begins.

Faced with domestic scarcity, Chinese ejiao producers turned to global markets, with Africa emerging as the primary source. Africa is home to an estimated 33 million donkeys, roughly 20 percent of the global donkey population, concentrated largely in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, and Niger. Several factors made African donkeys particularly attractive to international traders. African regulatory frameworks governing the slaughter and export of donkeys were, in many countries, either nonexistent or minimally enforced. The animals were abundant and relatively inexpensive compared to those in other regions. And the infrastructure for large-scale slaughter and hide export could be rapidly established with limited regulatory resistance.

Beginning around 2016, slaughterhouses specifically targeting donkeys for hide export began appearing across East and West Africa, many of them financed by Chinese investment. A report published by the Donkey Sanctuary in 2017, titled "Under the Skin," documented the rapid proliferation of these facilities and the alarming rates at which donkey populations were declining. In Ethiopia, the donkey population fell by approximately 25 percent between 2014 and 2019, according to the country's Ministry of Agriculture. Kenya banned donkey slaughter in 2020 following a documented decline of over 30 percent in its donkey population, a ban that was initially lifted in 2022 before being reinstated amid ongoing controversy. Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, and Tanzania have all introduced or strengthened donkey export restrictions in recent years, though enforcement remains inconsistent.

The slaughter process itself has attracted widespread condemnation from animal welfare organisations. Investigations conducted by the Donkey Sanctuary and other groups have documented overcrowded holding facilities, animals transported long distances without food or water, injuries sustained during transport, and slaughter methods that frequently fail to meet basic humane standards. Because donkeys are highly social animals with strong attachment to their companions, the stress of separation and confinement is considered particularly acute.

The supply chain from African communities to international markets typically involves multiple intermediaries. Local traders or brokers purchase donkeys from rural farmers, often at prices the farmers consider unfairly low given international demand. The animals are transported to slaughterhouses, where hides are removed and treated before being shipped to processing facilities, primarily in China, where they are refined into ejiao. The finished product then enters global beauty and wellness supply chains with little or no labeling that would connect it to its origin.

IV. The Global Demand Problem

The primary driver of ejiao demand is China, where the product is deeply embedded in cultural practices around health and beauty. Ejiao is particularly popular among women of middle age and above and is frequently marketed as a supplement to support women's health, skin quality, and longevity. Chinese New Year and other festivals generate significant gift-giving demand, and the product's premium positioning has made it aspirational in ways that have sustained high price points even as supply chains have come under strain.

Beyond China, demand is growing in other parts of East and Southeast Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore. In Western markets, ejiao has attracted attention in niche wellness communities interested in traditional medicine practices, collagen supplementation, and "clean beauty" products marketed as natural or traditionally derived. The irony of ejiao being positioned as a natural or artisanal wellness product while being sourced through industrialised mass slaughter is a recurring point of criticism from animal welfare advocates.

The economic dynamics of this global demand have had direct and damaging consequences for African communities. As international competition for African donkeys has intensified, the price of donkeys has risen dramatically in local markets. In Kenya, the average price of a donkey rose from approximately KES 10,000 (around USD 70) in 2014 to over KES 30,000 (approximately USD 200) by 2018, according to data compiled by the Brooke Animal Hospital, a leading equine welfare organisation. While this might appear beneficial to sellers, the reality is more complex. Smallholder farmers who rely on donkeys for transportation, agricultural work, and water collection found themselves unable to replace stolen or sold animals at inflated prices. The working donkey is not a luxury asset in rural Africa; it is frequently the difference between a household managing and a household failing.

The disconnect between consumer markets and source communities is significant and represents a genuine governance failure. A consumer purchasing an ejiao-based collagen supplement in Shanghai, Seoul, or London is unlikely to have any awareness of its origins in a rural African village, the impact on that village's economy, or the conditions under which the animal was slaughtered. This opacity is not accidental; it is a structural feature of global supply chains that lack transparency requirements.

V. Impacts on Africa's Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Africa's beauty and cosmetics industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world. The African cosmetics market was valued at approximately USD 9.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to exceed USD 15 billion by 2030, driven by a young and growing population, rising disposable incomes, and a strong cultural emphasis on personal care and beauty practices. Within this context, the depletion of donkey populations has a range of interconnected consequences that are only beginning to be understood.

In many African communities, donkeys are not simply agricultural tools; they are integral to traditional practices that include beauty and personal care. Donkey milk, for example, has been used for centuries across North Africa and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa as a skin moisturiser and treatment for eczema and other skin conditions. It is referenced in historical accounts stretching back to ancient Egypt and remains in use today both as a folk remedy and as a commercially produced cosmetic ingredient. Several African beauty startups and artisanal producers have begun incorporating donkey milk into product lines targeting both local and international markets. The collapse of donkey populations threatens these enterprises directly.

More broadly, the depletion of working donkeys disrupts rural economies in ways that constrain the economic participation of women, who in many African communities are the primary users of donkeys for water collection and market transportation. When women's economic productivity is constrained, their participation in the broader consumer economy, including their capacity to purchase beauty and personal care products, is reduced. The beauty industry's growth in Africa depends on the economic empowerment of African women. Policies that accelerate donkey depletion therefore work against the industry's own long-term interests.

The regulatory challenges are significant. Most African countries do not have specific legislation governing the commercial slaughter of donkeys or the export of donkey hides, and where such regulations exist, enforcement capacity is frequently inadequate. Cosmetics law in Africa is largely governed by national pharmaceutical and consumer protection frameworks, supplemented in some regions by bodies such as the African Union's African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation initiative, which focuses primarily on medicines rather than cosmetics ingredients. There is no continent-wide cosmetics regulation equivalent to the European Union's Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, which provides a model for ingredient transparency and safety standards. This regulatory fragmentation means that the connection between cosmetics ingredient sourcing and animal welfare is largely invisible in most African legal frameworks.

The environmental implications are also significant. Donkeys play an important ecological role in many African landscapes, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions where other animals struggle to thrive. They are efficient foragers capable of surviving on poor-quality pasture and are used to transport goods across terrain inaccessible to motorized vehicles. Their loss contributes to broader disruptions in rural land management, increases the physical burden on human communities, and in some cases accelerates land degradation as alternative transportation options place greater pressure on other resources.

VI. The Regulatory and Legal Landscape

The legal response to the donkey hide trade across Africa has been fragmented and largely reactive. Individual countries have moved to restrict or ban donkey slaughter after populations have already suffered significant decline, often under pressure from civil society organisations rather than through proactive regulatory planning. Kenya's experience illustrates this pattern clearly. Following the rapid establishment of Chinese-financed slaughterhouses and a documented population decline, Kenya banned donkey slaughter in 2020. The ban was subsequently overturned by a High Court ruling in 2022 on the grounds that it had been implemented without adequate public consultation, before being reinstated by the government pending further legal proceedings. This legal back-and-forth reflects the absence of a coherent regulatory framework and the vulnerability of policy measures to legal challenge when they lack firm statutory grounding.

Ethiopia, home to the world's largest donkey population, has moved more cautiously, implementing export controls rather than outright bans, but enforcement capacity remains limited. Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania have all introduced restrictions, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has discussed regional harmonisation of donkey trade regulations, though concrete binding agreements remain elusive.

At the international level, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) does not currently list the domestic donkey (Equus asinus) as a protected species, meaning that the international trade in donkey hides is not subject to CITES permitting requirements. Advocacy organisations including the Donkey Sanctuary have called for CITES listing as a mechanism to introduce international oversight, though this proposal has faced resistance from trade interests.

From a cosmetics law perspective, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which came into force in 2021, creates a framework for harmonising standards across the continent but does not yet include specific provisions on cosmetics ingredient sourcing or animal-derived ingredient traceability. The African Union's Agenda 2063 includes commitments to sustainable development and environmental protection that could, in principle, provide a basis for stronger regional standards, but these commitments have not yet been translated into specific regulatory instruments applicable to the beauty industry.

The gap in supply chain transparency is particularly critical. Current cosmetics labelling requirements in most African countries do not require manufacturers to disclose the origin of animal-derived ingredients, meaning that African consumers have no basis on which to make informed choices about whether a product they purchase contributes to the donkey hide trade. This stands in contrast to the European Union, where growing consumer pressure and regulatory interest in supply chain due diligence are beginning to create disclosure expectations, even if specific ejiao labelling requirements do not yet exist.

VII. Voices from the Ground

The human consequences of the donkey hide trade are perhaps best understood through the experiences of the communities it most directly affects. In Ethiopia's Oromia region, smallholder farmers have described losing animals to theft by traders seeking to supply the export market, sometimes overnight and sometimes multiple animals at a time. Research conducted by the Brooke Animal Hospital across several African countries found that donkey theft had increased dramatically in communities near slaughterhouses, with theft often perpetrated by organized networks rather than opportunistic individuals.

In Kenya's Turkana County, a semi-arid region where donkeys are critical to water transportation and domestic livelihoods, community members interviewed by researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) described the donkey trade as a form of economic violence, one that stripped communities of assets built over generations without meaningful compensation or consultation. Women in particular reported severe impacts on their daily routines, as the loss of working donkeys forced them to carry water and goods by hand over long distances.

The responses of local governments and community organisations have varied. In some areas, community-led resistance efforts have emerged, with local leaders imposing informal bans on the sale of donkeys to outside traders. In others, economic desperation has led communities to sell animals voluntarily, even at prices they recognize as unfair, because the short-term cash is more immediately pressing than the long-term loss of a working animal.

Industry responses from ejiao producers and the cosmetics companies that use their products have largely been defensive or dismissive. Few major brands that incorporate ejiao or donkey-derived collagen have published sourcing policies, supply chain audits, or welfare standards. The Donkey Sanctuary's efforts to engage the ejiao industry on welfare standards have met with limited positive response, and the industry's trade association, the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has generally resisted calls for independent auditing of sourcing practices.

VIII. Policy Recommendations

Addressing the harms of the donkey hide trade requires action at multiple levels: domestic regulation, regional cooperation, international standards, industry accountability, and consumer awareness. The following recommendations are directed at policymakers, regulators, and industry actors operating in and around Africa's beauty and cosmetics sector.

A. Strengthening Domestic Regulations and Enforcement

African governments should move toward proactive rather than reactive regulation of the donkey hide trade. This means establishing clear legal frameworks governing the commercial slaughter of donkeys, including licensing requirements for slaughterhouses, humane slaughter standards, and explicit provisions on export. Critically, these frameworks need to be backed by meaningful enforcement capacity, including trained inspectors and penalties that create genuine deterrence. Regulations that exist on paper but cannot be enforced are inadequate.

B. Creating Regional Agreements and Trade Standards

The African Union and regional economic bodies, including ECOWAS, the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), should develop binding regional agreements on the donkey hide trade. A regional approach would prevent regulatory arbitrage, whereby traders simply relocate operations to whichever country has the weakest protections. The AfCFTA framework could be extended to include animal welfare and sustainable sourcing standards as part of its harmonization agenda for the beauty and cosmetics sector.

C. Demand Reduction Strategies and Consumer Awareness

Reducing demand for ejiao and ejiao-derived ingredients in beauty products requires both consumer education and labeling reform. Cosmetics regulators across Africa should require disclosure of animal-derived ingredients and their countries of origin on product labels. Consumer campaigns, particularly those aimed at younger African consumers who are driving beauty market growth, should address the connection between certain ingredients and the depletion of donkey populations. International partners, including the European Union and the United States, should consider supply chain due diligence requirements that would extend to ejiao sourcing.

D. Alternative Materials and Sustainable Sourcing

Investment in the development of alternative collagen sources should be encouraged, including plant-based collagen boosters, fermentation-derived collagen peptides, and marine collagen from sustainably managed fisheries. Regulatory sandboxes for cosmetics innovation in Africa could support African beauty startups working on such alternatives. Where donkey milk and other donkey-derived products are used in cosmetics, sustainable sourcing models that allow for live animal use rather than slaughter should be prioritized and supported with appropriate certification frameworks.

E. International Cooperation and Transparency Requirements

International cooperation between African governments, Chinese authorities, and key consumer markets is essential. China's government has the most direct leverage over the ejiao industry and has, in recent years, introduced some domestic welfare standards for donkey farming, though these remain inadequate. Bilateral agreements between African countries and China on sustainable sourcing and trade limits would represent a meaningful step forward. Consideration of CITES listing for the domestic donkey should be revisited in light of documented population declines.

F. Support for Affected Communities and Economic Transition

Policy responses to the donkey hide trade must include measures to support the rural communities most affected by donkey depletion. This includes compensation mechanisms for communities that have suffered donkey theft or economic disruption, investment in alternative transportation infrastructure in rural areas, and support for community-based donkey conservation and breeding programs. Women's economic organizations in affected communities should be specifically targeted for support, given the disproportionate impact of donkey loss on women's livelihoods.

IX. Conclusion: Beauty, Ethics, and the African Future

The donkey hide trade is not a peripheral issue. It sits at the intersection of global commerce, animal welfare, rural development, regulatory governance, and the future of Africa's beauty and cosmetics industry. It is a story about how global demand, when it operates without transparency or accountability, can extract value from the world's most vulnerable communities while remaining invisible to the consumers who ultimately drive that demand.

Africa's beauty industry has a unique opportunity and responsibility to engage with this issue. As a sector that depends on the economic participation of African women, that increasingly champions African ingredients and African identity, and that operates within the continent's rich traditions of natural personal care, it cannot remain indifferent to a trade that undermines rural livelihoods, depletes animal populations, and exploits regulatory gaps.

Policymakers have the tools to act. Regional harmonisation frameworks, strengthened domestic regulation, supply chain transparency requirements, and international cooperation are all within reach. What has been missing is the political will to prioritize these measures and the public pressure to sustain that will.

Consumers, both within Africa and globally, have a role to play as well. Every purchase decision is, in some small way, a vote for the kind of supply chain a consumer is willing to support. Greater awareness of what ejiao is, where it comes from, and what its production costs the communities and animals of Africa is the first step toward more informed and more ethical consumption.

The donkey has carried the burdens of human civilisation for millennia. It is time for human civilisation to shoulder some of the burden in return.

*All statistics cited should be verified against current primary sources as figures in this area are subject to ongoing revision.