Ulaanbaatar
Banks start issuing cashmere loans totaling MNT 200 billion
Society
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Beginning from April 15, the government is providing loans to support the cashmere production industry as part of its MNT 10 trillion economic recovery, health protection plan.
Through commercial banks, loans with a 1-year term and 3 percent interest rate totaling MNT 200 billion will be issued to companies engaged in cashmere production. According to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, loans will be granted to cashmere enterprises whose operations are based on cashmere value chain stages above cashmere scouring.
Last year, 40 companies received loans targeting cashmere production, however, only 18 of them were specifically engaged in cashmere industry, noted the Mongolian Wool & Cashmere Association. Therefore, the Agriculture Ministry expressed to pay attention on the concerns over loan issuance and to allow only the companies solely engaged in the cashmere preparation process further than cashmere scouring.
The annual cashmere production of Mongolia is around 10,000 tons, and this year Mongolia expects to prepare about 9,700 tons of cashmere. This spring season, cashmere preparation per ton costs around MNT 150,000, and the price has been surged due to high domestic demand of raw materials and increase in combed cashmere wool price on global market, reports the Agricultural Exchange.
