Production, trade & prices

The annual census counted 58.1 million head of livestock at the end of 2025¹. Sheep (23.9 million) and goats (23.2 million) make up four-fifths of the herd, with 5.4 million cattle, 5.1 million horses and 501,000 camels¹. The herd grew almost every year after the 2009/10 dzud, reaching 70.97 million head in 2019 and 71.1 million in 2022. It then declined to 64.7 million in 2023 and 57.6 million in 2024¹. Horses reached their highest number of the period at the end of 2025 and cattle recovered to 5.4 million, while sheep remained 27% below their 2022 level (own calculation)¹. Mongolia had the fourth-largest horse herd in the world in 2024 and was the fourth-largest producer of horse meat (own ranking from FAOSTAT)².

Adult livestock losses vary with the winters. They were below 1 million head in most years between 2011 and 2017, but reached 2.6 million in 2018, 3.0 million in 2021, 4.9 million in 2023 and 9.4 million in 2024, 14.5% of the herd (own calculation)³. Losses in 2025 were 358,900, the lowest since 2007³⁴. In the first half of 2026 they were 348,500, against 188,500 a year earlier⁵.

Meat output was 699,900 tonnes in 2025, up from 453,100 tonnes in 2024⁶. Cashmere output peaked at 11,520 tonnes in 2020 and was 8,836 tonnes in 2025, and wool output fell from 35,919 to 23,742 tonnes over the same period⁶. Milk output was 295,400 tonnes in 2025. NSO's milk figures before 2019 use a different definition and are not comparable⁶⁷.

Wheat is the main crop. It was sown on 277,100 ha in 2025, 89% of the cereal area (own calculation)⁸. The wheat area grew from 250,200 ha in 2010 to 392,500 ha in 2021 and has declined since⁸. Yields are low and depend on rainfall. Wheat yielded 9.7 centners per ha in 2025, against 12.5 in 2024, and fell to 5.6 in 2015 and 6.3 in 2017⁹. The cereal harvest was 294,500 tonnes in 2025, after 443,200 tonnes in 2024 and 614,500 tonnes in 2021, the highest since 2010¹⁰.

Other crops have expanded. Fodder crops grew from 11,100 ha in 2010 to 93,400 ha in 2025 and vegetables from 7,000 to 16,300 ha⁸. Vegetable harvests rose to 282,300 tonnes in 2024 and 239,800 tonnes in 2025¹⁰. The potato harvest fell from 251,400 tonnes in 2024 to 114,100 tonnes in 2025¹⁰. 1.81 million tonnes of natural hay were harvested in 2025, the largest amount since 2010¹¹. The state-owned Agricultural Corporation sells seed wheat, fertiliser and machinery to farmers¹².

NSO publishes the share of food supply that comes from domestic production. In 2025 domestic production covered 99.9% of milk and 99.2% of meat supply, 90.4% of potatoes, 80.9% of flour, 66.7% of eggs and 60.6% of vegetables, but only 9.9% of vegetable oil, 5.0% of poultry and almost no fruit¹³. The flour share fell from about 98% in 2017–2022 to 58.3% in 2024 and recovered to 80.9% in 2025¹³. Wheat imports were 87,900 tonnes in 2024, 44,200 tonnes in 2025 and 138,000 tonnes in January–September 2026¹⁴. The 2022 'Food Supply and Security' movement set a target of buying at least 100,000 tonnes of food wheat a year for the strategic reserve¹⁵.

Explore the map to see where Mongolian agri-food exports go and where imports come from. In 2023, the latest year reported to UN Comtrade, Mongolia exported US$521 million of agri-food products (HS chapters 01–24) and imported US$1.04 billion¹⁶. China took 83.6% of these exports, mainly meat, meat preparations and nuts (HS 0802, including pine nuts), and Iran 6.6%, all of it meat¹⁶. Imports came mainly from Russia (23.9%), China (21.7%) and South Korea (11.3%), led by food preparations, flour and bakery products, beverages, tobacco and sugar¹⁶.

Animal fibres earn more than any agri-food chapter but fall outside HS chapters 01–24. Comtrade records US$400.3 million of exports in chapter 51 (wool and fine animal hair) in 2023, three-quarters of it to China¹⁶. NSO data show a change in the cashmere trade in 2025. Washed cashmere exports were US$256.7 million in 2024 and nil in 2025, while exports of combed goat down rose from US$69.8 million to US$332.5 million¹⁷. NSO's table does not give the reason. Horse meat exports were US$124.3 million in 2025¹⁷. Food imports (HS section IV) were US$889 million in 2025, against total imports of US$11.39 billion and total exports of US$15.76 billion¹⁸¹⁹.

Inflation has been high and variable. Consumer prices rose by 15.2% on average in 2022 and 8.6% in 2025²¹. In 2026 food prices led the increase. Food inflation rose from 12.6% in January to 25.5% in July and was 20.8% in September, while headline inflation was 12.9%²². Between 13 October 2025 and 12 October 2026 retail meat prices in Ulaanbaatar rose by 52.7% for mutton, to MNT 25,519 per kg, 47.8% for beef, 65.2% for goat meat and 28.9% for horse meat (own calculation)²³.