Mongol warrior Genghis Khan used 100,000 horsemen to build his empire and celebrated victories by getting drunk on airag, fermented mare’s milk. Some 800 years later Mongolians still drink airag, and they are once more eyeing horses to help build the nation’s wealth. This time, however, the animals will end up on the tables of Japanese restaurants, served as marinated raw meat, or basashi, and in Russian kitchens, boiled on the bone or shaved onto salads.
Mongolian Finance Minister Norov Altankhuyag is hoping that exports of horse meat -- together with beef, mutton and lamb -- will help the country overcome fierce trade competition from its giant neighbor and historical foe, China. Since January 1, when the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing went into effect, eliminating export quotas, Mongolia’s textile industry, which employs 20,000 workers and accounts for about 12 percent of exports, has been clobbered. “Some factories are in a panic situation,” says Altankhuyag, 46. “A lot of foreign joint venture companies with investment in Mongolia were working in the textile sector just because of the quota.”
Altankhuyag is therefore pushing ahead with diversification despite Mongolia’s impressive 10.6 percent growth in 2004. Good weather helped boost crops last year, while gold production surged nearly sevenfold as a mining project backed by Toronto-based Centerra Gold started operations.
When it comes to meat, Mongolia has a natural advantage: Its herders still rely on age-old practices. “Ecologically, Mongolian meat is organic,” says Altankhuyag, who graduated from the National University of Mongolia in 1981 with a degree in biophysics. “We are doing the marketing on that.” The country’s meat exports are already significant -- some 20,000 tons are shipped annually. Russia is the No. 1 customer, accounting for roughly 90 percent of exports. Japan also has a big appetite for Mongolian meat.
