BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICE ASSESSMENT REPORT

they sell their wool and cashmere to changers offering the highest prices. 12
respondents previously participated in trade fairs and market days organized by local
government and Chamber of commerce and they all found it useful for selling and
advertising their produce, studying other competing products, exchanging skills and
know-how and sharing knowledge on raw materials and production.
Production inputs
Key inputs for herding businesses are considered hay grass, fodder, veterinary service
and breeding animals. Herders prepare hay grass themselves (4), buy (6), procure
fodder (8), make themselves (1) and some even never use (1). For the total of 5066
livestock owned by 10 herders surveyed, 42.2 tones of hay grass and 4.2 tones of
fodder is prepared and used throughout the year Herders buy hay grass and fodder
locally or nearby soums (Baruunturuun and Tes soums) or procure from aimag center or
Hartolgoi and Teel areas spending 4.05 million MNT for the overall amount of fodder and
hay grass.
4 of 10 herders buy veterinary service frequently, while remaining 6 buys only a few
types of vet services. All herders get their animals vaccinated. Some buy pharmacy for
de-worming, but some do not often get their animals washed as they do not prefer spray
method that rural vets often use. Some herders, who also tend some limited number of
animals of other people, get all animals vaccinated as there is higher likelihood of cross
infection in case some are omitted. A GTZ funded project is being implemented in
Tarialan soum which will provide all necessary veterinary services to selected herder
households for three year period as a pilot project.
Herders change breeding animals for every three years stating that they change with
other herders from the same soum or bagh (8) or some get their breeding animals from
other soums (2). They take an active part in the elite breeding animal fair to compare
quality and yield of their own herd.
Non herding businesses require wide variety of inputs for their businesses. At the initial
stage, they travel to Ulaanbaatar or Ulaangom to buy materials themselves, then for the
second time they order their friends or relatives in the city to send exactly the same
materials. It is very common that this informal input supply network results in sending
wrong or low quality materials, so the businesses encounter difficulties in the course of
their businesses. Aside from this, a vegetable planting business operators of Tarialan
soum buys the seed and seedling from the scientific institute of neighboring Russian city
of Barnaul as well as all required information and advice of planting and caring. None of
the planting business operators use chemical fertilizers; instead they extensively use
organic substances such as manure, which is widely available for free.
Equipment
Business operators purchased their lemonade and water bottling equipment from
Urumqi of China, intestine processing equipment from Holland, felt making equipment
from Ulaanbaatar and other small equipments for ice cream & bakery from Ulaangom
town. Maintenance and repair is mainly taken care business operators themselves and
many of them order to as far as UB for spare parts. There is no any place where they
can get information on equipment, only a few businesses use newspapers for equipment
related info.