Minister reasserts successful wheat production

Deputy Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry Kh. Zoljargal has said the recent outbreak of the foot and mouth disease was the first in Mongolia since 2001, and actually came at a time when the Government was planning to write to the WHO that Mongolia was free of the disease. He guessed the infection had come from antelope which travel to and from China, but did not answer a question on whether “China had deliberately sent infected antelope across the border”.

He repeated his conviction that domestic production will meet the entire demand for wheat in the country and said flour mills will be kept busier than ever before. He denied that bureaucratic indifference had forced private companies to import wheat from Russia and explained that at one point Russia was selling wheat at a price cheaper than that of the Mongolian wheat kept in the national reserve.