China is a major exporter of animal’s bristles but forces at home and abroad are taking their toll
Dai Changlin and Jing Haibing have made their name in a niche business.
The two farmers from northern China breed and farm badgers for the luxury consumer goods market, which uses the animals’ bristles and hair to make brushes.
They run separate operations but are both leaders in their field and have been held up as examples for other farmers, featuring two years ago in Chinese state television programmes showing how agricultural businesses can innovate their way to a bigger income.
Jing, from Qinglong county in Hebei province, claims the title of China’s largest badger farmer and produces more than 6,000 of the animals a year.
Meanwhile, Dai, the first to breed badgers, now owns three farms in Heilongjiang’s Raohe county, producing several thousand badgers a year.
They both say business is growing – despite a campaign by an international animal welfare group.
But now there is a new issue: badger hair – of which China is a major exporter – has appeared on the list of goods that US trade warriors have hit with import tariffs, which remain in place despite the agreement at the G20 not to escalate the dispute for now.
The niche product is only one profitable part of the animal. Besides car seat cushions or make-up and shaving brushes, badgers have been butchered for their fat, which is extracted for medicine and cosmetics, and meat – which is regarded as a delicacy in some quarters.
Jing said hair accounted for 30 per cent of his business, while the rest of the animal went into medicine and skin care products.
