Several Mongolian eco-beauty brands are developing a new use for the tens of millions of yaks, goats and sheep on Mongolia’s vast steppes – a range of organic cosmetics and skin creams, often based on traditional recipes that are rapidly attracting attention from foreign buyers. All the organic cosmetics entrepreneurs said that much more research was needed to develop the industry.

Lhamour, is the one of several companies launched to exploit the potential of locally made organic cosmetics, raised 100 million tugrik ($53,000) in September from a bond issuance launched to finance new products, and is already exporting to Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Belgium. The company, established in 2014, makes soaps from yaks’ and goats’ milk, lip balm, hand creams, nipple creams for breastfeeding mothers, and a soap made from sheep’s tails.

Fast-growing Lhamour, which employs 38 full-time workers at a factory and office building in Ulaanbaatar, remains small by the standards of the international cosmetics industry. But the company raised revenues by 83% in 2016 to $220,000, and is targeting a further 105% increase to $450,000 in 2017.

Half of Mongolia’s 3 million people are nomadic herders, and their 60 million livestock offer many potential opportunities for the development of organic products.