The Mongolian government has implemented a series of incentives to attract investment into the country’s agricultural sector including rent-free land leases and tax breaks on construction of agricultural farms, factories and agricultural machinery. Given adequate financing, Mongolia aims to shift from an exporter of raw foods and materials such as milk, meat and cashmere to producing and exporting value-added products. Wedged between Russia and China, Mongolia sees the potential in its geological advantage – the ability to supply two of the world’s fastest growing markets. Especially China, which has been plagued with food safety issues. Mongolia has 41 million head of livestock including sheep, goats and camels worth US$7.5 billion, supplies 21% of the world’s unprocessed cashmere, and has over 1 million square kilometers of available agricultural land. The country is in the beginning stages of building up its critical infrastructure in order to meet these goals. Dairies, barns, greenhouses, and processing facilities will all need to be constructed in a way to combat the country’s harsh climate and severe wind storms called ‘dzud’. According to the UN in 2009-10 a dzud killed 8 million animals – 17% of the country’s livestock.
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