Page | 38pesticides, machinery, and fuel.^191 As a consequence, by 2010 Mongolian farmers were
producing less than 50% of the nation’s grain needs.^192
Forestry
Mongolia’s forests are state owned and managed.^193 Most tree harvesting goes toward
fuel needs, with only a small amount allotted for private or industrial uses.^194 Because the
harvesting limits are significantly lower than actual usage of wood products, illegal
logging is a persistent problem.^195
Industry
Mining dominates Mongolia’s industrial sector.
Manufacturing, in contrast, is limited to just a few
market niches. Up until the end of 2004,
Mongolia had a successful cotton textile industry
with 30,000 workers employed in as many as 70
garment factories producing clothing for export,
mainly to the United States.196,^197 Most of the raw
cotton came from China, and most of the factories
were owned by Chinese or other East Asian
companies.^198
(^191) Morris Rossai, “Chapter 4: Poverty and Other Social Problems,” in Modern Mongolia: From Khans to
Commissars to Capitalists (Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2005), 144.
(^192) Lester R. Brown, “Chapter 3 Data: Eroding Soils and Expanding Deserts: Grain Production, Area,
Yield, Consumption, and Imports in Mongolia, 1961–2010,” in World on the Edge: How to Prevent
Environmental and Economic Collapse (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011), http://www.earth-
policy.org/books/wote/wote_data
(^193) Batukh N., “Mongolian Forest Ecosystems,” World Wildlife Federation, March 2004, 2,
http://www.assets.panda.org/downloads/forest_ecosystems_in_mn__march04.pdf
(^194) T. Erdenechuluun, “Chapter 1: Forests and Forestry in Mongolia,” in Wood Supply in Mongolia: The
Legal and Illegal Economies (Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development/World Bank, 2006), 11,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/MONGOLIAEXTN/Resources/mong_timber_int_for_web.pdf
(^195) T. Erdenechuluun, “Chapter 3: Illegal Timber Harvest and Trade,” in Wood Supply in Mongolia: The
Legal and Illegal Economies (Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development/World Bank, 2006), 31,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/MONGOLIAEXTN/Resources/mong_timber_int_for_web.pdf
(^196) Chuluunbat Tsetsegmaa, “Coping With Restrictive Policies and Maintaining Competitiveness:
Mongolia,” 9–10 April 2007, http://www.unescap.org/tid/mtg/weaving_mong.pdf
(^197) James Brooke, “Down and Almost Out in Mongolia,” New York Times, 29 December 2004,
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/business/worldbusiness/29mongolia.html
(^198) James Brooke, “Down and Almost Out in Mongolia,” New York Times, 29 December 2004,
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/business/worldbusiness/29mongolia.html