Mongolian Meat Export to Rise

By Ts.Tungalagtseel

The Mongolian population is 2.7 million and the domestic animals number is over 40 million. The numbers are explained because Mongolians are traditionally nomadic and for a very long time the basis of the economy was livestock breeding.
Mongolia also has another reason for the seemingly disproportional number, its neighbors Russia and China, which are the two biggest meat importing countries in the world, according to a report from the Mongolian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry which was made in December 2010. Historically the two neighbors have high requests to import meat and meat products from Mongolia but the requests were limited due to the international hygiene standard. Since this year the meat and meat products export volume to these two countries has increased because Mongolian meat and meat products have improved to meet international hygiene standards.

Mongolia and China have signed a meat trade agreement for 8 million sheep within 3 years. If a sheep weighs an average of 20 kg it would total 160 million kg in mutton exported to China.
Kh.Zoljargal, Vice Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry made the Cooperation Agreement for Processed Meat with Pu Chan-chen, Vice President of the Ministry from General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China.
According to the agreement Mongolia will export mutton, goat meat, and wheat. Beef and horsemeat export from Mongolia is not decided yet and the two parties are studying the processing companies and taxes of those meats. According to the agreement, the Mongolian side will import chicken from China but pork will not be imported to Mongolia from China because the quarantine of pork is being continued.
Recently, Russia has announced that it will lift the quarantine on meat imports from Mongolia. The quarantine was created in response to contaminated livestock found in Mongolia in pervious years. Mongolia is preparing to export beef from 9,034 cows, horse meat from 11,434 horses and mutton from 3,226 sheep.
During the period of socialism, the importing volume of meat to Russia reached 40 000 tons but since 1990 the meat import volume has been reduced.Russia has a high interest in importing more meat from Mongolia and it seems the volume of imported meat will increase dramatically.
Mongolia also exports meat and meat products to Kazakhstan, Japan, Ukraine, Iran, and Vietnam according to the General Customs Report.
In last year Mongolian meat export was increased by 32.9 percent (23.8 thousand ton) compared with previous year and in 2009 meat export was 17.9 thousand ton.
In the last year Mongolian meat exports increased by 32.9 percent (23.8 thousand tons) compared with the previous year and 2009 meat exports were 17.9 thousand tons.
Last year the meat export was:
-12.4 thousand tons beef and horsemeat to Russia
-8.1 thousand tons meat of goat, horsemeat and mutton to Vietnam
-2 thousand tons of mutton and goat meat to Iran
-1.3 thousand tons of horsemeat to China
In the last five years, the Mongolian livestock number is increasing and reached 45 million this year. Mongolia has the capacity to prepare 100 thousand tons of meat but is using just 15 percent of capacity, said the Ministry of Food Agriculture and Light Industry.
The need of local meat is 223 thousand tons per year.
In Mongolia livestock such as cows, horses, sheep, goats, and camels are raised out on a field as a herd. No hormones or chemicals used to feed any livestock.
The meat and meat production in Mongolia is considered the natural and organic. Raising livestock is practical because of the extensive grasslands. The harsh, dry climate makes most forms of agriculture impossible, less than one percent of the land is under cultivation. Traditional pastoral livestock raising and intensive sedentary livestock raising involving the processing of meat and dairy products has been developed.
Pastoral livestock raising is a sustainable industry using grass resources and requiring little or no input, whereas the tillage or dairy farming requires a form of agriculture. Hog raising and poultry farming require large amounts of operating funds for heating, water and fodder, and sophisticated management skills, including marketing and technology.
In the last year, 22 meat processing industries were monitored for the international hygiene standards and 18 of them were valued “AA” rate (license to export their processed meat and meat production under the country’s criteria) and three meat processing industries were valued “AAA” (met those industries operate with international hygiene standards and have the right to export their meat and meat production to international market)
The Mongolian meat processing industry consists of factories with their own slaughterhouses. These small businesses engaged activities ranging from the production of freshly cut meat to the production of sausages and canned meats.
There are about 5 large and 65 small meat and sausage producers operating today.  60 of these businesses are located in Ulaanbaatar.

Source:UB Post