VZCZCXRO0637
RR RUEHLMC RUEHVK
DE RUEHUM #0234/01 1430848
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 220848Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2182
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6177
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0529
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 2269
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 0293
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 3052
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 3377
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 0043
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 0119
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 0077
RUEHNT/AMEMBASSY TASHKENT 0081
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ULAANBAATAR 000234 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM - D.CITRON 
BEIJING FOR AGCOUNS AND APHIS 
STATE PASS TO AID/ANE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON SENV PGOV EAGR SOCI MG
SUBJECT: MONGOLIA LAUNCHES FOOD SAFETY INITIATIVE 
 
Ref: A) ULAANBAATAR 205, 
     B) ULAANBAATAR 006, 
     C) ULAANBAATAR 013, 
     D) 04 ULAANBAATAR 372, 
     E) ULAANBAATAR 115 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Calling 2008 the "Year of Food Supply and Safety," 
the Mongolian Government has launched a new program to improve 
food-handling procedures, raise awareness of food-quality issues, 
and decrease the country's dependence on imported food.  The 
program, which comes in response to skyrocketing food prices and 
highly publicized incidents of food poisoning, is also aimed at 
improving veterinary services to raise the quality of domestic meat 
and milk; increasing import surveillance; improving food transport 
and storage conditions; increasing the number of testing labs at 
border crossings; and reclaiming farmland to increase crop yields. 
Unsafe food is regularly imported or smuggled in from China and 
Russia, and inspection authorities lack the capacity to prevent its 
sale and distribution through Mongolia's enormous gray economy. 
There is also a general lack of awareness among Mongolians about 
food safety issues.  With food prices soaring, many  Mongolian 
consumers are paying more attention to the price tag than to safety 
concerns. END SUMMARY. 
"THE YEAR OF FOOD SUPPLY AND SAFETY" 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Reeling from skyrocketing food prices (ref A) and several 
fatal food-poisoning and contamination accidents, the Government of 
Mongolia (GOM) declared 2008 the "Year of Food Supply and Safety." 
Earlier this year, more than 50 people were poisoned and 16 died 
after consuming domestically produced vodka tainted with methanol 
smuggled from China (refs B, C) past bribed Mongolian Customs 
officials.  On May 2, one person died and over 150 people were 
hospitalized in western Bayan-Ulgii province after being exposed to 
food poisoning at a wedding reception.  According to the National 
Center for Communicable Diseases, last year 379 persons suffered 
from documented food poisoning in Mongolia; there were no cases of 
death.  So far in 2008, there have been approximately 200 
food-poisoning outbreaks ("outbreaks" defined as affecting ten or 
more people).  From 2002 to 2005, Mongolia recorded nine full-blown 
epidemics spawned by food-borne illnesses. 
 
PROMOTING DOMESTIC FOOD PRODUCTION, REDUCING IMPORTS 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The initiative aims to promote domestic food production and 
reduce the country's dependence on imported food.  It is also 
intended to raise public awareness and information on the quality of 
food products, and to ensure hygienic and safe food production and 
processing.  The GOM has set up a working group for Food Security 
and Policy, chaired by the Minister for Food and Agriculture (MOFA) 
Ts. Gankhuyag and made up of representatives from the Ministries of 
Industry and Trade, Health, the Center of Standardization and 
Measurement, the State Inspection Agency and the Association for the 
Protection of Consumer Rights. (Note: MOFA's point man on food 
safety is one of several politicians believed to be behind the 
"disappearance" of some US$22 million in wheat monetization funds 
through theft, fraud and mismanagement between 1993 and 2004; ref D. 
 End Note.) 
 
IMPROVING VET SERVICES, IMPORT SURVEILLANCE 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) In addition, the GOM plans to spearhead several 
sub-initiatives, including improving veterinary services to ensure 
higher meat and milk quality standards; increasing import 
surveillance; and improving conditions for the transport and storage 
of food items.  Unfortunately, the GOM has provided few details on 
how it hopes to achieve these goals.  To wean Mongolia off its 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000234  002 OF 004 
 
 
dependence on imported food, the GOM launched its "third campaign 
for reclaiming virgin lands" (ref E), which aims to increase harvest 
yields per hectare and to meet 100% of domestic demand by 2010. 
(Note: Experts have concluded that this goal will be difficult, if 
not impossible, to achieve.  End Note.)  The GOM is also promoting 
technological improvements in the packaging and labeling of food 
products. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The GOM launched the initiative after several smaller-scale 
food safety initiatives failed. Training sessions and seminars by 
the State Special Inspection Agency (SSIA) on proper food handling 
and storage techniques failed to bring about noticeable 
improvements.  Similarly ineffective were efforts by the UN's Food 
and Agriculture  Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization 
(WHO) to encourage Mongolian industry to adopt Hazard Analysis at 
Critical Control Points (HACCP), good manufacturing practices (GMP), 
and good hygiene practices (GHP) -- key components of the safety 
management systems in the food supply chain.  FAO and WHO 
recommendations for Mongolia's 1999 Food Law also went unheeded. 
FAO is now working with the MOFA to revise the National Program for 
Food Security, which was first developed in 2001 but did not 
anticipate food price increases and food shortages. 
 
MORE THAN HALF OF FOOD SOLD WITHOUT GOM PERMISSION 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶6. (U) According to the SSIA, responsible for the enforcement of 
government food-safety policies, more than 50% of food items sold in 
Mongolia last year was sold without proper permission from the 
appropriate inspection authorities.  Nearly 29% of the items failed 
to meet minimum standards for frozen food handling and storage, and 
14.6% were improperly packaged. (Note: The Minister of Food and 
Agriculture recently said 80% to 90% of all food products consumed 
in the country did not meet minimum quality and hygiene standards. 
The source of these statistics is unknown. End Note.) In 2007, the 
SSIA carried out 98,100 inspections of food-production companies, 
restaurants and food-service businesses,, and issued 1,800 
suspensions, of which 1,200 "serious offenses" resulted in the 
closure of the establishment.  Some 900 million Tugriks (US$800 
thousand) worth of food was seized and destroyed, and fines and 
penalties of 270 million Tugriks (about US$255,000) were imposed. 
(Comment: Given the  hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars spent on 
food in Mongolia each year, these figures do not appear to track 
with claims that 80 to 90% of all food products are tainted in some 
way.  End Comment.) 
 
INSPECTION CAPACITY REMAINS WEAK 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) Inspection capacity remains weak, although the SSIA has over 
700 inspectors nationwide.  Some 300 are based in Ulaanbaatar, and 
60% of them are dedicated to food-safety issues.  The vast majority 
of Mongolia's food-related industries (food processing, restaurants, 
etc.) fall within the country's enormous and unregulated grey 
economy.  These businesses usually prepare and handle food at homes 
or gers with little thought about hygiene or proper handling. 
Effective control requires SSIA to rely heavily on tips from the 
public and to work closely with local police. 
 
PREVENTION, RATHER THAN CONTROL 
------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The SSIA is currently establishing a certificate program to 
persuade food-related businesses to improve their internal controls. 
However, the current inspection regime, which emphasizes control 
over prevention, only encourages food producers to avoid taxes, 
heavy fines and seizure/destruction of their products by changing 
labels or expiration dates on packaging, hiding excess products from 
inspectors, and selling them on to stores and restaurants.  The 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000234  003 OF 004 
 
 
recent vodka deaths are a case in point.  The company that produced 
the tainted vodka deliberately deceived inspectors by illicitly 
producing the spirit at night and fudging production numbers to 
avoid taxation.  Afterward, a spot inspection of vodka producers 
showed that 5% did not meet standards, and had to be shut down. 
 
MANY UNSAFE FOOD PRODUCTS FROM CHINA, RUSSIA 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) According to Y. Sanjmyatav, Chair of Parliament's Standing 
Committee on Environment, Food and Agriculture, much of Mongolia's 
"bad" food comes from China and Russia.  Enterprising suitcase 
traders purchase food for import to Mongolia from largely 
unregulated gray-market producers in northern China.  The sheer 
numbers, believed to  be in the thousands, make border inspections 
difficult.  Substandard food is frequently smuggled in, either 
through porous, uncontrolled borders, or by bribing customs 
officials (as was the case with the methanol from China that led to 
the vodka deaths described in ref B). 
 
DAIRY PRODUCTS POSE SPECIAL PROBLEMS 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶10. (SBU) Specialists of the Mongolian Food Association are 
especially concerned about the quality of milk and milk products 
imported from China and Russia.  Russian yeast for yogurts, they 
complain, is often of poor quality; Russian production standards are 
low, and give little consideration to hygiene. (Note: Even with 40 
million livestock, Mongolia has to import 70% of the country's total 
urban demand for milk and milk products, due to lack of distribution 
capacity and high transport costs. Only 1.7% of domestically 
produced milk is pasteurized.  End Note.) 
 
¶11. (SBU) In 2007, 30 tons of pesticide-laden wheat from Russia had 
to be destroyed and a further 600 tons did not meet human 
consumption standards and were converted to use as animal fodder. 
 
IMPROPER TRANSPORT 
------------------ 
 
¶12. (U) According to the SSIA, 71% of all imported food is 
transported inappropriately, exposing it to contamination, and at 
least 9.7% of imported food was past its expiration date. (Note: 
Long travel time to markets and false labeling by some Chinese 
companies makes detecting outdated food particularly difficult.  Of 
course, some Mongolian firms do the same.  End Note. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Mongolia currently has little capacity to test imported 
food.  Recently, the GOM reached an agreement with China on US$1 
million in funding to build border labs, to be overseen by Border 
Force and Customs personnel.  Meanwhile, Parliament is considering 
legislation that would only allow larger, more established 
distributors to import food products.  This would allow inspectors 
to keep closer tabs on food imports.  Smaller importers oppose the 
GOM's intrusion into what they feel should be a market-driven 
process; they also feel the proposal would favor large, 
politically-connected importers. 
 
GOM'S TESTING SYSTEM FLAWED 
--------------------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) The GOM's testing system is duplicative and wasteful.  One 
importer of fine wines reported that he had to provide Customs with 
samples of each wine for testing.  After Customs gave its approval, 
the SSIA demanded that the importer conduct the same tests at a lab 
approved by the SSIA, as the SSIA did not approve of the lab used by 
Customs.  In addition, the importer argued that the testing 
standards used by both agencies were vague, out-dated, and 
arbitrarily imposed on him, but not on other importers.  The 
importer complained to both Customs and the SSIA about their 
processes, suggesting that they combine testing regimes to more 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000234  004 OF 004 
 
 
efficiently use their meager resources and to avoid delays and 
costs.  However, both allegedly rejected the suggestion.  We have 
heard similar complaints from those seeking to import meat, poultry, 
and other food products. 
 
POOR STORAGE FACILITIES, VET SERVICES 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶15. (SBU) Imports are by no means the only source of dangerous food 
in Mongolia.  The country is sorely lacking adequate storage 
facilities and refrigeration, for both imported and domestically 
produced food.  This often results in severe spoilage in the warm 
summer months.  Mongolia's meat supply comes mostly from domestic 
sources, but only meat destined for the capital tends to be 
certified as safe by a veterinarian at the time of slaughter. 
(Note: There is also concern that livestock, as well as fish, are 
ingesting increased levels of mercury and cyanide, due to artisanal 
mining.  End Note.) 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶16. (SBU) GOM officials hope that by declaring this the Year of Food 
Supply and Safety they will be seen as proactively addressing these 
issues.  Indeed, the President has declared that food safety and 
supply are now top GOM priorities.  Privately, however, officials 
opine that there is an almost willful lack of awareness among 
Mongolians about food safety, despite the attention it has garnered 
in the media. However, many consumers have little faith in the 
pronouncements of government officials, who are seen as either 
turning a corrupt blind eye to tainted food products, or having a 
personal business interest in food importation or production.  Few 
Mongolians realize they can demand certificates from the SSIA 
attesting to the quality of the food they purchase.  Consumers 
continue to patronize gray-market food establishments, and with food 
prices rising, this trend is only expected to continue.  Price, 
rather than safety, is the determining factor when purchasing food. 
 
GOLDBECK