Following the successful piloting of the milk-based school meals programme in Ulaanbaatar in May with 6,000 children, the first phase of the national school-lunch programme was rolled out on 01 September 2006. The President of Mongolia, the Prime Minister, numerous ministers and other dignitaries presided over various school launching ceremonies across the country.



The Government has allocated 2.3 billion Turgrugs (US$2 million) to Phase I of the programme, which will run to December 2006 for some 40,000 grades I and II children (aged five to seven). Our private sector dairy project partners supply over 80% of these school meals – a mix of bakery and dairy products. In Ulaanbaatar, 75 schools and 32,000 children now benefit from the healthy, balanced eating and nutrition that milk provides as nature’s most complete food. The Government now insists that only domestic milk is used and plans to gradually extend the school programme to all 110,000 students in 2007. Different milk or dairy products, including traditional functional products, are provided each day and the programme has boosted cash flow and earnings for the dairies involved. It is also showing domestic milk and dairy products to tomorrow’s customers. Seventy percent of the processed milk and dairy products sold in urban areas are either imported or reconstituted from imported milk powder, notwithstanding the fact that Mongolia can produce all its needs. Fifty percent of the population is under 20 year’s old and have not experienced domestic milk and dairy products as the formal dairy industry, along with other food industries, collapsed in the 1990s during the abrupt change for State-run the market-oriented economy.

The scheme is gradually being expanded to other urban areas by our partners in Baganuur, Darkhan and Sukhbaatar cities.

The scheme is also gradually being expanded to more remote rural areas, e.g. Bayanlig Soum in Bayankhongor Aimag. The attached photos are from a recent visit to one of the schools in the Gobi programme. The Gobi desert is one of the harshest living environments in the world with temperatures ranging from below minus 40oC in winter to plus 40oC in summer. The school and entire area (bigger than the UK) have no electricity – but there are tens of thousands of camels. Why do the children look so healthy? We believe it is because their school meals are based on camel milk and camel milk products with natural, functional properties unique to Mongolia. These products include Hoormog (fermented camel milk), Boz (a mixture of boiled fresh camel milk and Hoormog), Aarts (the remaining curd after distilling vodka – Arkhi – from fermented camel milk) and Aruul (dried curd). The children are week-day borders and most travel to and from school by camel at the weekend.

(Tsetsgee Ser-Od and Brian Dugdill, December 2006)