Mongolia's meat market is worth $1.1 billion, and it's expected to grow by 13.7% each year for the next 5 years. What's going on? 

Let's do math

Mongolia exported $127.4 million of meat in the first 10 months of 2023. Interestingly, a significant 82.1% constitutes horse meat, 17.3% is lamb and goat meat, with the remainder being frozen beef. 

• Check this out: On average, meat exports have increased by 49.3% every year since 2017. Thanks to Covid-19, we couldn't export much meat in 2019-2021, but we've bounced back in a big way this year, setting a record for exports in the first 10 months. 
• How is that happening? It's all about the increase in meat exports to China. China's meat consumption is growing every year, and by 2025, one person is expected to consume 51.5 kg annually. This is because China’s standard of living is improving, and that's why our meat market is thriving. 
• Destination? Lamb and goat meat go to Azerbaijan and Iran, horse meat heads to China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, while beef exclusively goes to Uzbekistan. 
• Behind the scenes: Mongolia boasts 71.1 million livestock, but agriculture only made up 13% of the GDP last year. If the Mongolian meat market makes a robust recovery in the future, this figure could see an increase.  

What's next? 

Mongolia has 98 animal processing plants and 80 meat processing plants, but they use less than 10% of their total capacity. Over the last 5 years, around 35.7 thousand tons of meat were processed industrially, making up only 6.2% of the meat produced by agriculture. So, if we enhance the meat quality, there's room for factories and the market to grow. The Mongolian meat market has the potential for even more expansion.