Mongolia to enhance support for wool, cashmere, leather processing industries

Ulan Bator, Dec 26 (IANS) Mongolia is seeking to strengthen its support for the wool, cashmere, and leather processing industries, according to a statement from the presidential press office on Thursday.

As part of the national campaign "White Gold," initiated by President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry, in collaboration with 10 major commercial banks, signed a financing agreement on Thursday.

Under the agreement, enterprises in these sectors are expected to receive 788.9 billion Mongolian tugriks (over 231 million US dollars) in circulating capital and concessional investment loans in the coming year alone, the press office announced.

Within the framework of the national campaign, which will run until 2028, Mongolia aims to significantly enhance its cashmere processing capacity.

The Asian country is expected to increase the level of full cashmere processing from the current 20 percent to 40 per cent, and expand exports from 398 million US dollars to 690 million US dollars under the framework of the campaign.

Additionally, the campaign seeks to increase the level of wool processing from 25 per cent to 55 per cent, with exports projected to grow from 52 million US dollars to 119 million US dollars, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the level of deep processing of leather and hides is estimated to increase from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, and exports are expected to grow from 9.6 million US dollars to 22.4 million US dollars.

Altogether, the campaign is expected to significantly boost Mongolia's economic growth, creating over 8,000 new jobs across the wool, cashmere, and leather sectors, while enhancing the country's industrial capacity and export potential.

Mongolia has an average annual production capacity of 37,000 tonnes of sheep wool, 10,000 tonnes of goat cashmere, 2,000 tonnes of camel wool, 400 tonnes of yak fur, and 18 million pieces of hides and skins, according to the presidential press office.

Promoting livestock husbandry is considered a key strategy for diversifying Mongolia's mining-dependent economy.

As one of the world's last remaining nomadic nations, Mongolia had 64.7 million livestock at the end of 2023, according to the National Statistics Office.

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