Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Prime Minister of Mongolia U.Khurelsukh has worked in rural aimags. During his working trip to Darkhan-Uul aimag on September 17, Prime Minister Khurelsukh said that Darkhan-Uul aimag will develop as an agrarian and food production region in accordance with the government’s resolution and visited some agricultural fields in the region. 

 On September 17, he worked at the Darkhan Metallurgical Plant state-owned joint stock company in Darkhan-Uul aimag, which was founded in 1990 and has been operating in the fields of mining production, processing and metallurgy as well as foreign and domestic trade. Darkhan Metallurgical Plant is the first and the largest metallurgical plant in Mongolia, with annual capacity of 121,700 tons of scrap metal processing and 100,000 tons of steel milling. 

In 2017, the plant launched its fully automated and euro-standard steel ball manufacturing plant, which operates with the world leading technology and produces steel balls with forging method, and has been supplying steel balls for domestic needs as import substitution.  

The same day, Prime Minister also worked at the Khutul cement and lime manufacturing plant. PM Khurelsukh praised the works of the plant, which has been providing for the lime consumption of the Erdenet Mining Corporation for around 37 years, and energy and heating water consumption of Khutul city, despite its losses of MNT 2.5 billion. He then highlighted that the Khutul cement and lime plant has been operating nonstop, mobilizing domestic professional engineers and is considered a strategically important facility of Mongolia. At the end of his visit to the plant, PM Khurelsukh pledged to give government support for its operations and exporting its cement. 

Afterwards, PM Khurelsukh became acquainted with the harvesting in Selenge aimag, visiting agricultural fields in the region. During the spring sowing 2020, 394.6 thousand hectares were cultivated for grain, of which 364.0 thousand hectares were for wheat; 18.6 thousand hectares for potatoes, 9.6 thousand hectares for vegetables, 61.1 thousand hectares for oil plants and 52.7 thousand hectares for fodder plants. According to the preliminary balance, it is expected to harvest 513.3 thousand tons of grain, of which 487.6 thousand tons are wheat; 237 thousand tons of potatoes, 113.6 thousand tons of vegetables, 32.8 thousand tons of oil plants and 109.4 thousand tons of fodder plants. As a result, domestic wheat need is expected to be met fully. 

For the ongoing autumn 2020 harvesting campaign, 1,020 combine harvester, 300 of which are of high-technology, and 978 machinery of other types are being utilized. In addition, it has been reported that 30 combine harvesters from Russia and 30 potato harvesters and other equipment for potato harvesting from Belarus will be imported in the near future.