Dongeejiao Pharmaceutical to launch donkey food brands

Dongeejiao Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, whose major product is ejiao, a traditional Chinese health improvement product, signed an agreement with Shandong Lvbang catering company to launch two food brands, donkey flesh hotpot and donkey flesh steamed stuff bun.

Dongeejiao's products are made of donkey leather, which is regarded as a tonic in traditional Chinese medicine, and it can help with nourishing and moistening body dryness, and treat with blood deficiency.

As the supply of donkey leathers falls short of demand, Dongeejiao has been not fared well in recent years. The tonic maker raised prices for 16 times in the past decade. Last month, the company announced that it will increase the price for its major products like dongeejiao, compound ejiao syrup, and peach blossom ejiao pastry by 15 percent.

In 2013, China had 6.03 million of donkeys, that's 110.6 percent fall from 12.7 million in 1954. Whereas dongeejiao has a demand of 10 million donkey leather annually, to relieve the tight supply of donkey skin, doneejiao plans to shift part of its business to deal with donkey flesh.

In the next three years, Shandong Lvbang, a donkey flesh developer and producer, plans to open 3,000 restaurants in China and globally, with an investment of 1 billion yuan. Besides, it will set up 200 central kitchens in major cities.

Meanwhile, Dongeejiao, Shandong Lvbang and China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd,co-founded a catering fund with an investment of 180 million yuan. The fund will mainly support the layout of the donkey restaurants.