Nigeria is currently exporting cattle bones to China, and the good news is that it is zero tariff.

Just like me, if you are wondering why China needs  the bones from our cows, let me break it down for you. 

Cattle bones are the primary raw material for collagen and gelatin used in food (gummies). 

Gelatin production:

Cattle bones are also used for drugs; your Amoxicillin, Tetracycline, Doxycycline, Amatem soft gel, Vitamin E, and Cod liver oil are made with by-products of cattle bones after the cattle bones are converted to Crude Pharma Grade Gelatin in China. 

Animal feed, bone meal, and fertilizer all need the input of cattle bones  during manufacturing. 

Activated carbon / bone char: Burnt bones can produce bone char, used in filtration, sugar refining, and water purification.

A ton of bone meal is around $200 - $750 currently.

Why we are exporting to China instead of keeping it back in Nigeria is simple: 

China has a thriving pharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem which we don’t have. 

For instance, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) needed to manufacture malaria drugs by pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria are imported from China because we don’t have the capacity and the infrastructure to do Malaria API in Nigeria. 

China also has the 24/7 light for drying and processing the acid waste from these cattle bones. 

Unfortunately, we don’t have light in Nigeria, which makes it an unattractive business to do in Nigeria. 

Instead of our Fulani brothers staying in the bush who are  kidnapping innocent Nigerians, exporting cattle bones from their dead cows  to China is actually more lucrative as they will make more money than ransom money.

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