Value chains & market institutions

Mongolian goats produced 8,836 tonnes of cashmere in 2025¹. Until 2024 most of it was exported as washed cashmere, with exports worth US$256.7 million for 4,776 tonnes in 2024². In 2025 washed cashmere exports were nil, and 4,023 tonnes of combed goat down were exported for US$332.5 million, an average of about US$83 per kg (own calculation)². Combed down exports were US$312.6 million in January–September 2026². Exports of knitted jerseys, pullovers and cardigans were smaller, at US$12.8 million in 2025².

A parliament resolution of May 2022 required technical regulation for processed cashmere from 2023, exempted processing equipment from taxes, provided annual concessional loans for processors and introduced quality-based cash incentives to herders for yak down and fine wool³. The Mongolian Wool and Cashmere Association, with 119 members (October 2026), issues the 'Mongolian Noble Fibre' quality mark⁴. XacBank issued MNT 83.6 billion of subsidised loans under the Government cashmere, crop and tourism programmes in 2025⁵.

Mongolia produced 699,900 tonnes of meat in 2025 and covers 99.2% of its livestock meat supply itself¹¹⁰. In 2025 meat supply was five times the norm for the standard population¹⁰. Exports are concentrated on a few products and on China. In 2023 Mongolia exported US$171.7 million of meat (HS 02), of which US$125.4 million of horse meat and US$44.0 million of sheep and goat meat, and US$139.6 million of meat preparations (HS 16)⁹. China took US$120.1 million of the meat and almost all of the preparations, and Iran US$34.7 million of meat⁸. Horse meat is the main item in the NSO export table, at 34,654 tonnes worth US$124.3 million in 2025². Mongolia ranked fourth in world horse meat production in 2024 (own ranking from FAOSTAT)¹¹. Poultry is mostly imported, and domestic production covered 5.0% of poultry supply in 2025¹⁰.

Wool output fell to 23,742 tonnes in 2025 and sheep wool exports to US$6.7 million¹². Hide and skin exports have also declined, to US$2.0 million in 2025 from US$33.8 million in 2015¹². A 2012 programme financed by MNT 140.4 billion of government securities offered loans at no more than 7% to hide and skin processors and paid cooperative herders for each skin delivered¹³. The wheat chain is organised around the state. The Agricultural Corporation sells seed wheat and fertiliser and trades food wheat, and the Government buys wheat for a strategic reserve¹⁴¹⁵. The EBRD signed a loan of up to US$8 million to Ulaanbaatar Flour in 2024 for wheat procurement¹⁶.

The Agricultural Commodity Exchange was founded in 2013 and is wholly owned by the ministry. Wool, cashmere, live animals, wheat and rapeseed are traded on it, and meat, hides and skins were added in 2019¹⁷. By law, goods on a list approved by the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry must be traded on the exchange before export¹⁸. According to its website, the exchange organised trading worth MNT 7 trillion in 2013–2023, including MNT 968 billion in the latest year reported¹⁷. Several state support measures for herders are channelled through cooperatives. The 2021 Law on Cooperatives and the 2024 law on climate impacts on animal husbandry underpin the 'New Cooperative Movement', which subsidises loans to cooperative member herders¹⁹²⁰²¹. According to its website in October 2026, the national federation of pasture user groups has 1,445 groups and 81,600 members, and 24,200 herder households in 818 of its groups have saved MNT 3.05 billion in common funds²².