Deputy
Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry Kh. Zoljargal has said the recent outbreak of the foot and mouth disease was
the first in Mongolia since 2001, and actually came at a time when the
Government was planning to write to the WHO that Mongolia was free of the
disease. He guessed the infection had come from antelope which travel to and
from China, but did not answer a question on whether “China had deliberately
sent infected antelope across the border”.

He repeated his conviction that domestic
production will meet the entire demand for wheat in the country and said flour
mills will be kept busier than ever before. He denied that bureaucratic
indifference had forced private companies to import wheat from Russia and
explained that at one point Russia was selling wheat at a price cheaper than
that of the Mongolian wheat kept in the national reserve.