At the training, participants were introduced experiences of International marketing consultant Grant Winning, Australian herder Roven McDonald and former FAO Representative in Mongolia and Pakistan, international expert Kevin Gallagher. Mr. Grant, experienced in raising income through marketing sales of producers in the Asia-Pacific, accompanied the project team in Erdenet, Darkhan and Ulaanbaatar cities. They met with representatives of the domestic producers and identified some pressing issues regarding demand, requirements for raw materials and value-added network. Moreover, the project team met with the herders’ cooperative in Dundgobi aimag and evaluated activities of raw material processing and procurement.

During the training, Mr.Grant Winning shared his experience of increasing the cost of sheep wool in Balochistan province of Pakistan from USD 5 million up to USD 19.3 million by improving the skills and technologies of wool producers. Pakistan has similar climatic conditions and territory with Mongolia and practices pastoralism as well.

International experts emphasized that the important step in producing valuable wool is to keep the cattle in good condition, improve the quality of the wool, washing and wool shearing technologies and classified wool processing. In Pakistan, there are three main requirements for herders, including the sheared wool must be the same length, wool from top, back and belly must be separated and washed thoroughly. In order to meet the requirements Australian practice of washing the sheep before shearing and machine shearing was introduced to Pakistan. As a result, the wool yield from one sheep increased from 70 percent up to 90 percent and improved in quality.

B.Misheel