– Herders of Khanbogd process camel milk to supply the market –
Gobi herders founded a dairy factory in their soum. Amin Gobi LLC in Khanbogd soum, Umnugobi aimag has decided to process camel milk in cooperation with herder families from the Bayan-Undrakh area. Bayan-Undrakh is an area in Bayan bagh, Khanbogd soum which has the highest number of camels – 1,622. Every year Bayan bagh residents organise a festival called “Thousand-baby camels” to showcase the high numbers of camels in the bagh.
Of course, financing was necessary to establish a factory. Therefore, they turned to the ’Goviin Shim’ program which is implemented by Oyu Tolgoi LLC. This programme is aimed to support processing of animal raw materials and assist local businesses and the local economy and to increase herder incomes. The programme accepted the proposal and provided a MNT 30 million loan at 1 per cent monthly interest rate. Although the work started in 2012, a long time was spent repairing the work area, purchasing and installing equipment, and training of staff. The first dairy factory in Khanbogd was opened at the end of last year.
Heating, treatment, cooling and packing equipment in the factory is the latest, fully automatic equipment and therefore, only a staff of 3 is needed to operate these machines. The capacity of the dairy factory is quite good and it can process up to 1.5 tonnes of camel milk per day. Currently, the factory is producing camel milk drinks according to traditional methods and they are packaging these drinks into 330 gram bottles and delivering them to the market. Furthermore, they plan to produce fermented camel milk and curds. The milk is heated at high temperature and processed through evaporation. This is a very efficient technology to treat and retain the taste of camel milk. All 35 herder families of the Bayan-Undrakh area milk camels and process their milk in this factory. Not only herders of this area, but also herders from other areas of the soum can deliver their milk to the factory. People use fermented camel milk for medical treatment and and for refreshment. The fermented camel milk does not go sour and withstands heat and it is more nutritious and fattier than the milk of other animals. Therefore, the company is not only selling it in this soum, but also supplies the nearby Oyu Tolgoi mine.
R.Badamdorj, technologist of the dairy factory and head of the herders of the Bayan-Undrakh area said, “we are processing the milk according to traditional Mongolian methods without using any additives, therefore, the end product is a clean ecological product. The factory can increase income of not only herders of our area, but also of all herders of Khanbogd soum. Just now, one herder came here and sold 500 litres of milk for MNT 1 million. On average, 500 grams of milk can be milked from one female camel.” He proudly added, “We have supplied 1,000 packages of fermented camel milk to Oyu Tolgoi mine. We have a market. Mining is developing rapidly and the population of Khanbogd soum is increasing. Our soum alone has about 20 thousand camels. Therefore, we don’t have a problem of a shortage of raw materials or milk”.
The start of the first dairy factory in this soum with highest number of camels in Mongolia is very good news. Now they have to introduce and deliver their products and further expand the market.
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