European-Standard yak cheese factory launched in Gachuurt
Ulaanbaatar will soon be treated to high quality yak cheese provided by the country’s first cheese factory set up according to European standards, Siryak Co., Ltd. Production by this joint venture between Mongolian, French and Italian entrepreneurs was formally inaugurated on December 4 at its factory located in the Shar Xolai area of Gachuurt, 35 km from the city. The company will be making mainly yak milk cheese but since yak milk supply is inadequate, it will also experiment with cow and yak milk blends.
Cottage cheese, cheddar and cantal cheese recipes have been used to produce the first few batches of yak cheese with surprisingly good results as presented at the inauguration. Plans are to expand the varieties with different French cheese production techniques best suited to yak milk.
The Director of the project and its main inspiration is Mr. Didier Le Goff, an engineer by profession who has been a technical consultant for food manufacturers in Mongolia for the past four years. He was spurred to start this venture by the need for commercial initiatives in the field of agricultural products and the potential Mongolia has in this sector. “When you look at Europe now, there’s nothing to do because everything is there, yet in Mongolia there’s everything to do because there’s nothing here,” he said. His goal is to build a profitable operation that can help generate income for herders in the locality who have been looped in to supply milk to the factory.
Set up with a total investment of 150,000 Euros, the cheese factory is being treated as a pilot project which its initiators hope to replicate in different parts of the country. “A big aim is to help herders in the countryside continue with their pastoral lifestyle and make an income,” said Mr. Le Goff. Herders in the Gachuurt area own around 100 yaks and part of the initiative includes providing training and new techniques to improve farming, cattle feeding, milking the animals and collecting milk from the herders.
There are three other cheese factories in various parts of the country, working as small cottage industries. Siryak will be the first employing European standards of production and air controlled storage for maturing the cheese while offering varieties that may be hard to rival. The company has already listed the support of several restaurants and hotels in Ulaanbaatar as customers once commercial production begins in April 2011 but eventual plans are to export the cheese to South Korea, Japan and China as a gourmet product before hitting western markets. The novelty of yak cheese itself will be a huge selling point, without leaving out the great taste, said Mr. Le Goff.
Because of seasonal fluctuation in the quality and contents of milk, which tends to be richer and fatter in summer, the dairy foods industry in Mongolia often continues to rely significantly on imported reconstituted milk powders to standardize production. But Siryak cheese will remain 100% Mongolian. “Real cheese cannot be and should not be standardized, you must taste the seasons in it,” said Mr. Le Goff. As a self confessed cheese lover, he sees this as a challenge.
It will be a few more months before Siryak cheese hits supermarket shelves, but the project has already met with enthusiasm from herders around Gachuurt who will finally have a place close by to sell their milk.
Mongolia’s agricultural sector employs about 40% of the population while accounting for 22% of the GDP. Agriculture and the meat industry have been often touted by analysts as having huge potential for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Between 1995 and 2005, 1.9% of the USD1, 440,875 that reached the country was invested in the food and agriculture sector, according to data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. However the 2010 report from the Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency of Mongolia (FIFTA) has shown a steady decline in the last 5 years with only 0.5% of total FDI going to the agricultural sector.
The yak cheese factory could well be a pioneer in the sector. Sustainable business ideas here will be crucial to preserving Mongolia’s nomadic cultural heritage, at the same time providing technical assistance to better manage cattle rearing and maintaining techniques, adds Mr. Le Goff. If plans go well, herders and their hairy bovines in and around Gachuurt will soon have more than one reason to say ‘Cheese’!
Source: Pearly Jacob wrote this report for the Newswire
Cottage cheese, cheddar and cantal cheese recipes have been used to produce the first few batches of yak cheese with surprisingly good results as presented at the inauguration. Plans are to expand the varieties with different French cheese production techniques best suited to yak milk.
The Director of the project and its main inspiration is Mr. Didier Le Goff, an engineer by profession who has been a technical consultant for food manufacturers in Mongolia for the past four years. He was spurred to start this venture by the need for commercial initiatives in the field of agricultural products and the potential Mongolia has in this sector. “When you look at Europe now, there’s nothing to do because everything is there, yet in Mongolia there’s everything to do because there’s nothing here,” he said. His goal is to build a profitable operation that can help generate income for herders in the locality who have been looped in to supply milk to the factory.
Set up with a total investment of 150,000 Euros, the cheese factory is being treated as a pilot project which its initiators hope to replicate in different parts of the country. “A big aim is to help herders in the countryside continue with their pastoral lifestyle and make an income,” said Mr. Le Goff. Herders in the Gachuurt area own around 100 yaks and part of the initiative includes providing training and new techniques to improve farming, cattle feeding, milking the animals and collecting milk from the herders.
There are three other cheese factories in various parts of the country, working as small cottage industries. Siryak will be the first employing European standards of production and air controlled storage for maturing the cheese while offering varieties that may be hard to rival. The company has already listed the support of several restaurants and hotels in Ulaanbaatar as customers once commercial production begins in April 2011 but eventual plans are to export the cheese to South Korea, Japan and China as a gourmet product before hitting western markets. The novelty of yak cheese itself will be a huge selling point, without leaving out the great taste, said Mr. Le Goff.
Because of seasonal fluctuation in the quality and contents of milk, which tends to be richer and fatter in summer, the dairy foods industry in Mongolia often continues to rely significantly on imported reconstituted milk powders to standardize production. But Siryak cheese will remain 100% Mongolian. “Real cheese cannot be and should not be standardized, you must taste the seasons in it,” said Mr. Le Goff. As a self confessed cheese lover, he sees this as a challenge.
It will be a few more months before Siryak cheese hits supermarket shelves, but the project has already met with enthusiasm from herders around Gachuurt who will finally have a place close by to sell their milk.
Mongolia’s agricultural sector employs about 40% of the population while accounting for 22% of the GDP. Agriculture and the meat industry have been often touted by analysts as having huge potential for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Between 1995 and 2005, 1.9% of the USD1, 440,875 that reached the country was invested in the food and agriculture sector, according to data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. However the 2010 report from the Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency of Mongolia (FIFTA) has shown a steady decline in the last 5 years with only 0.5% of total FDI going to the agricultural sector.
The yak cheese factory could well be a pioneer in the sector. Sustainable business ideas here will be crucial to preserving Mongolia’s nomadic cultural heritage, at the same time providing technical assistance to better manage cattle rearing and maintaining techniques, adds Mr. Le Goff. If plans go well, herders and their hairy bovines in and around Gachuurt will soon have more than one reason to say ‘Cheese’!
Source: Pearly Jacob wrote this report for the Newswire
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