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Mongolia · Section 1 of 9

Overview

Mongolian agriculture is based on nomadic herding. At the end of 2025 the country counted 58.1 million head of livestock, kept mainly by 195,500 herder households on open pasture that covers almost all agricultural land. Agriculture produced 8.9% of GDP in 2025 and employed 23.2% of workers. Output depends on the winters. In 2024, after the dzud of 2023/24, 9.4 million adult animals died and agricultural value added fell by 28.7%. Meat, cashmere and nuts (HS 0802, including pine nuts) are exported, mainly to China. Bank credit to agriculture and herders reached MNT 2.76 trillion in August 2026, about US$768 million. At the end of 2025, 81% of loans to the agriculture sector were funded through state or donor programmes, and an index-based livestock insurance scheme has operated since 2014.

Agriculture share of GDP
8.9%
2025 (preliminary)1
Agricultural value added
2.27US$ bn
20252
Share of employment
23.2%
20253
Livestock
58.1million head
end-20254
Real agricultural growth
+33.2%
2025 (after −28.7% in 2024)5
Bank loans to agriculture
1.47MNT trn
≈ US$409 m6
Aug 20267
Agriculture and herder loans, share of bank loans
5.7%
Aug 20267
Agri-food exports
521US$ m
20238
1.1

At a glance

Agriculture is mainly livestock. Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting produced MNT 8.04 trillion of value added in 2025, worth about US$2.27 billion, or 8.9% of GDP (preliminary)512. Its share was 14.0% in 2015 and fell to 7.3% in 2024, the year of a severe dzud1. Livestock accounted for 81.3% of the MNT 10.34 trillion of gross agricultural output in 2025, about US$2.92 billion at the average exchange rate (own calculations)9106. The labour force survey counted 315,100 people working in agriculture, forestry and fishing in 2025, 23.2% of all employed3.

Herding families keep almost all the animals. The livestock census counted 58.1 million head at the end of 2025, comprising 23.9 million sheep, 23.2 million goats, 5.4 million cattle, 5.1 million horses and 501,000 camels4. They were kept by 248,000 households, of which 195,500 were herder households, and by 313,199 herders111213. Pasture covers 96.4% of agricultural land, and land law does not allow pasture to be owned (own calculation)1415. Crop farming, mainly rain-fed wheat, uses about 1.26 million ha14.

Winters determine output. A dzud is a winter disaster in which snow, ice or cold prevent animals from grazing. NSO recorded 10.3 million adult livestock losses in 2010, after the dzud of 2009/10, and 9.4 million in 2024, after the dzud of 2023/24, 14.5% of the herd (own calculation)16. Agricultural value added fell by 16.6% in 2010 and 28.7% in 2024, then rose by 33.2% in 20255.

Exports go mainly to China. Mongolia reported US$521 million of agri-food exports (HS 01–24) and US$1.04 billion of imports in 2023, the latest year in UN Comtrade8. China took 83.6% of these exports8. Cashmere and wool (HS 51), outside these chapters, earned US$400.3 million in 2023, more than any single agri-food chapter8. In 2025 exports of combed goat down reached US$332.5 million and horse meat US$124.3 million17.

Loans to the agriculture sector rely on state programmes. Banks held MNT 1.47 trillion of loans to agriculture in August 2026, worth about US$409 million, and MNT 1.29 trillion of herder loans, together 5.7% of bank loans76. At the end of 2025, 81% of the agriculture sector's loans were financed through state or donor programmes, usually at below-market rates (own calculation)7. Index-based livestock insurance, governed by a 2014 law, pays herders when livestock deaths in their soum exceed a threshold18.

Out of every 100…
Agriculture's weight in jobs, output, land, credit and emissions
23.2
employed people work in agriculture, forestry or fishing (2025)3
8.9
togrog of GDP come from agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (2025, preliminary)1
96.4
hectares of agricultural land are pasture (2025)14
5.7
togrog of bank loans go to agriculture or herders (August 2026)7
55.2
tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture (2022)19
195,500
herder households at the end of 202512
9.4 m
adult animals lost in 2024, the year of the 2023/24 dzud16
US$332.5 m
of combed goat down exported in 202517
83.6%
of agri-food exports went to China in 20238
Agriculture's share of GDP
Value added, % of GDP at current prices, 2010–2025
Source: NSO — NSO fixed-base national accounts. 2025 is preliminary. In September 2026 NSO published a revised, chain-linked pilot series for 2019–2025 that puts agriculture at 6.9% of GDP in 2025. This profile uses NSO's fixed-base composition table. The World Bank ratio of value added to GDP differs slightly (9.9% in 2023, 13.0% in 2022)21.
Livestock by species
Livestock census, end of year, million head, 2010–2025
Source: NSO — The herd grew from 32.7 million head at the end of 2010 to a peak of 71.1 million in 2022, then fell to 57.6 million in 2024 after the 2023/24 dzud. It was 58.1 million at the end of 2025.
1.2

Key issues for agricultural finance

Dzud risk on a mobile collateral base

Herd size depends on winter conditions. The herd fell from 71.1 million head in 2022 to 57.6 million in 2024, and 9.4 million adult animals died in 2024416.

Most farm credit comes through state programmes

Programme-funded loans rose from MNT 104.0 billion in 2023 to MNT 1.23 trillion at the end of 2025, 81% of the agriculture sector's bank loans7.

Herder loans are costly

New herder loans carried 22.1% in December 2025, against 16.7% for all new togrog loans including programme loans and 9.2% for the agriculture sector22.

Insurance coverage is small

Insurers wrote 2,555 index-based livestock insurance contracts in 2025, with MNT 3.18 billion of premium, and brokers sold 19,350 individual contracts23.

Crop yields are low and variable

Wheat yields ranged from 5.6 to 16.8 centners per ha between 2010 and 2025, and the 2025 cereal harvest of 294,500 tonnes was a third below 20242425.

Livestock emissions and degraded pasture

Agriculture produced 55.2% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, and 15.1% of surveyed rangeland was strongly or very strongly degraded in 2025 (own calculation)1926.
The data come from national and international sources. National accounts, the livestock census, crop statistics, prices, food supply and national trade data come from the National Statistics Office (NSO), whose 2025 national accounts are preliminary. This profile uses NSO's fixed-base national accounts. A revised chain-linked series published in September 2026 gives different values for 2019–2025. Bank credit by sector, interest rates and green loans come from the Bank of Mongolia statistics database, with figures for 2026 months preliminary and shares based on our own calculations. Non-bank and insurance data come from the Financial Regulatory Commission. Trade by partner on the map is from UN Comtrade for 2023, the latest year Mongolia has reported. Laws were checked on legalinfo.mn. Official outturn data for the concessional loan programmes of 2022–2026 were not found.

Sources cited on this page

  1. Industrial composition of GDP by economic activity, by year 1990-2025, table DT_NSO_0500_002V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  2. WDI – Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current US$), NV.AGR.TOTL.CD (API, JSON) — World Bankverified
  3. Employment by economic activities, sex, age group, aimags and the Capital, by year (Labour Force Survey), table DT_NSO_0400_035V7_1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  4. Number of livestock by type of livestock, bag, khoroo and by year (end-of-year livestock census), table DT_NSO_1001_021V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  5. GDP by production approach, at current prices and fixed base-year prices, by year 1990-2025, table DT_NSO_0500_001V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  6. Exchange Rates (ER) dataset – Mongolia, domestic currency per US$ (end of period and period average) — International Monetary Fund (IMF), Statistics Departmentverified
  7. Statistics database, Banking sector's loan indicators, Total loan by economic activities, Outstanding loan (report 98, JSON API, monthly, million MNT) — Bank of Mongoliaverified
  8. UN Comtrade – Mongolia, agri-food trade (HS chapters 01–24) by partner, 2023 (public preview API, JSON) — United Nations Statistics Divisionverified
  9. Gross livestock output, by year 2000-2025, table DT_NSO_1001_001V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  10. Gross output of crops, by year 2000-2025, table DT_NSO_1002_001V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  11. Number of households with livestock (Maltai urkh) by bag, khoroo and by year, table DT_NSO_1001_022V4 (PXWeb API, English, table named 'number of herder households', indicator 'households with livestock') — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  12. Number of herder households by bag, khoroo and by year, table DT_NSO_1001_027V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  13. Number of herdsmen by bag, khoroo and by year, table DT_NSO_1001_022V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  14. Agricultural land by aimag and the Capital city, by year (pasture, hayfields, cropland), table DT_NSO_2400_029V2 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  15. Law on Land (Газрын тухай, revised version), consolidated text (HTML, Mongolian) — Unified Legal Information System of Mongolia (Legal Institute, Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs)verified
  16. Losses of adult animals by type of livestock, bag, khoroo and by year, table DT_NSO_1001_029V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  17. Export by main commodities, by year (DT_NSO_1400_006V2_year) and by month cumulative (DT_NSO_1400_006V2_month) (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  18. Law on Index-based Livestock Insurance (Малын индексжүүлсэн даатгалын тухай), consolidated text (HTML, Mongolian) — Unified Legal Information System of Mongoliaverified
  19. Mongolia's First Biennial Transparency Report under the Paris Agreement, 31 December 2025 (PDF, English, copy of the UNFCCC submission hosted by Climate Policy Radar) — Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia, Climate Change Research and Cooperation Centreverified
  20. GDP by production approach, at current prices and chain-linked volume measures (reference year 2024), pilot estimation, by year 2019-2025, table DT_NSO_0500_001V3 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  21. WDI – Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (% of GDP), NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS (API, JSON) — World Bankverified
  22. Statistics database, Weighted interest rate by industrial and sectoral classification (report 172, JSON API, monthly, percent per year) — Bank of Mongoliaverified
  23. Insurance sector consolidated report, year-end 2025 (PDF, mn) — Financial Regulatory Commissionverified
  24. Yields of staple agricultural crops per hectare by type of crop, aimags and the Capital, by year, table DT_NSO_1002_006V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  25. Harvested crop of cereals, potatoes, vegetables and fodder crops by aimags and the Capital, by year 1960-2025, table DT_NSO_1002_005V1 (PXWeb API, English) — National Statistics Office of Mongoliaverified
  26. Second National Report on Assessing the Impacts of Rangeland Use through Photo Monitoring, chapter 3, the condition of Mongolia's rangelands based on photo monitoring results 2020-2025 (PDF, English) — General Agency for Land Administration and Management, Geodesy and Cartographyverified
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AI-assisted content, human-reviewed: This page was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by a human editor. (last review: October 2026) Despite review, errors or outdated values may remain; please verify critical figures against the linked primary sources before relying on them. Nothing here is investment, legal or financial advice.
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