By B.BYAMBADORJ

Translation from “Udriin Sonin.”
Concerned administration and organizations have said that reserved meat may only last until July 2012.
The city has ordered 20 companies to reserve nearly 20,000 tons of meat to meet people’s demands, and avoid the spike of meat prices in the winter seasons. Over 4,000 tons of meat has already been sold.
Sources indicate that the companies have actually preserved a relatively small amount of meat compared to what they claimed to have held aside. Dealers at Huchit Shonkhor and Narantuul markets say that the companies are purchasing tons of meat from them to make up for the required amount that they currently distribute to stores and shops.
Bolortuya, head of the Marketing Department at Makh Impex, a majority holder of the reserved meat, says “Our Company has reserved 16.6 percent of the total meat. We have begun preserving meat starting in October 2011 and ended in mid-December 2011.

“We have 350 tons of beef, 650 tons of mutton and 500 tons of lamb in storage. We are currently supplying 13 separate distributors with reserved meat. We have provided a total of 200 tons of meat in January, and 500 tons of meat are planned to be distributed in February.
Recently, there was an inspection from the State Specialized Inspection Agency on distribution procedures. There were even three consecutive inspections from the city administration.” She added that the Company has not yet received its advance payment for reserving meat.
Makh Impex stores its meat in 3 large interconnected storage rooms with moderate security, in temperature of -20°C.
Subsequently, we have visited the storages of Makh Market, Makh Export and Mongol Makh Expo in this manner. Workers of those companies said that reserving meat has become a stressful burden.
First, the companies get loans from banks and make contracts with herders to purchase livestock and buy meat from them at the current market price. However, workers said that it is more profitable if the meat is purchased from traders and dealers at public markets, such as Narantuul. While paying interest rates of the loan from their own pockets, they distribute their rreserved meat throughout spring.
“Go and ask the traders out there at Huchit Shonkhor market about this issue. They will answer all your questions. If you are lucky you will encounter company personnel buying bulks of meat at the market, to have it reserved,” a source said.
After arriving at Huchit Shonkhor market, we interviewed an independent meat dealer, who chose to remain anonymous, about illegally arranged and collected reserved meat.
Is it true that Companies show reserved meat and obtain the rights to distribute it by displaying someone else’s stored meat to the officials?
Everyone knows that meat reservation companies show market dealers’ storage houses, claiming it as their own, to city administration to obtain distribution rights. As a result, it is not possible to identify the exact amount of meat stored by whom. The dealers at the bazaar are indirectly supplying a major portion of the meat demand in UB.
The quality and quantity of meat provided by the meat preserving companies are progressively decreased after one month of distribution. This is because they begin purchasing meat from other, unreliable sources where they are not allowed to buy from; but this yields more profit in the end.
Another exploitation of the meat preservation and distribution process is that the companies get paid a bonus of 600 MNT from the city for every ton of meat provided to micro distributors – and both the distributors and companies are writing fake receipts to have additional bonus payments.
Does it mean the monitoring for distribution is weaker than it appears?
For the first month of distribution it is tightly monitored by an inspection commission assigned from the city administration. Afterwards, they stop the monitoring and the companies begin taking advantage of absence of constant checkup.
At this rate, price of meat could reach MNT 10 000 per kilogram before the end of spring. Our meat will soon be depleted.

Stores: Amount of
preserved meat is less than expected

Kunsnii 4 Supermarket had no meat in stock when we arrived. Manager G. Sumya says, “We get around 200 kilograms of meat every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The meat is sold out within 20 minutes of its arrival. Last year, meat supply was abundant and demand was not as high as today. Meat companies say that they have assigned the meat reserves and they are planned to last until July 1.”
The operation to reserve and distribute meat is becoming a major profit scam for some individuals. In the end, the meat price might well reach 10 000 MNT per kilogram.