Agriculture
From The Report: Mongolia 2014
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Agriculture, which accounts for 16% of GDP and 40% of employment, benefitted from good climatic conditions in the first half of 2013, allowing the industry to grow 20.6% year-on-year. The government has concentrated its efforts on developing the sector in a sustainable fashion with a series of programmes such as the Mongolian National Livestock Programme and the State Policy on Food and Agriculture, which are expected to run until 2021 and 2020, respectively. While Mongolian producers have historically been able to meet the domestic demand for meat, consumption has been on the rise and, since 2009, meat prices have increased while exports have fallen. Mongolia is estimated to be 60% self-sufficient in vegetables and 100% self-sufficient in potatoes. The government and the private sector alike are working to transform Mongolia into a producer of high-end luxury agricultural products, which will likely be initially marketed in the West. Achieving this goal will require a series of investments in local processing, technology, transport networks and training. So long as these issues are addressed, the sector could potentially become a major and sustainable source of export revenues.
This chapter contains an interview with U. Boldsaikhan, President, Ensada Holding.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Focus on sustainability: Enhancing long-term viability and boosting revenues through careful development
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Agriculture has been a cornerstone of the Mongolian economy for thousands of years. While the sector has recently been overshadowed by the burgeoning mining industry, as of mid-2013 agriculture was widely considered a central component of the nation’s long-term development strategy and a major potential economic contributor. From early 2012 through 2013 the local agriculture sector posted solid expansion in terms of overall production, due primarily to favourable weather conditions. According to…

Interview

OBG talks to Boldsaikhan Usukh , President, Ensada Holding
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Interview: BoldsaikhanUsukh What efforts are being made by the government to capitalise on Mongolia’s agriculture potential? BOLDSAIKHAN USUKH: Today, special emphasis is given to the farming of crops, with investment of between $100m-200m over the next few years set to improve crop farming technology and make it more environmentally friendly. To this end, concepts such as zero tillage and direct seeding are becoming more common. Traditional agriculture equipment is also going through a…

Analysis

Food for all: Increasing self-sufficiency as a means of achieving food security
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Over the past few decades a series of major economic, demographic and environmental developments have transformed Mongolia’s food security situation. Under communism, the country was more than 80% self-sufficient in terms of overall agricultural production. In the decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this number dropped precipitously as a result of declining subsidies, lax regulatory oversight, and, more generally, the rapid and poorly managed transition to a market economy. Additionally,…