Conference in Ulaanbaatar attracts strong interest from investors. Conference in Ulaanbaatar attracts strong interest from investors. As part of its drive to strengthen the country's agribusiness sector, the EBRD – with support from the European Union – has organised a conference entitled “Future Opportunities in Mongolia’s Dairy Sector” in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday, 30 March 2017. The event was opened by Matthieu Le Blan, EBRD Head of Mongolia, and attended by over 100 private companies and public stakeholders.
The conference provided a platform for discussion among milk producers, processing companies, public organisations, professional associations, international agencies and training institutions. It offered an opportunity to exchange experiences and lessons learned about best practice in dairy farming.
Participants addressed the most pressing issues in the sector. The event included top dairy producers who are also EBRD clients such as Suu, APU and Vitafit. Representatives of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry noted that the private sector’s input will be very valuable for future policy considerations.
The EBRD shared findings and recommendations from its advisory project “Improving productivity of dairy farmers”. The project assessed the technical and market capacity of 13 local farms in 2015, and dairy development company The Friesian Agro Consultancy BV (Netherlands) held practical training for over 40 participants from 18 farms in 2016. In addition, three pilot farms implemented innovative software for herd management.
“Dairy production is a key sector for the Mongolian economy and the country could become self-sufficient in milk and other dairy products. As our longstanding engagement shows, there are a number of processing companies that are keen to develop dairy value chains,” said Victoria Zinchuk, Head of Agribusiness Advisory, EBRD. “As a Bank we have already supported a number of companies and are well placed to assist dairy processing both with financing and advisory support”, she noted.
The conference will be followed by further practical on-farm training later this year, covering topics such as production of quality winter forage, animal nutrition, health, treatment of young stocks, as well as soil analysis and identification of appropriate types of animal feed plants.
The EBRD has been supporting the Mongolian agribusiness sector since 2007, including almost all major dairy producers and processors in the country, with investments amounting to €60 million. The EBRD has also provided advisory services to private sector dairy companies to support them in sourcing higher quality milk in appreciable volumes.