Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Ch.Ulaan has held a meeting with the Ambassador of France to Mongolia H.E. Philippe Merlin.

At the meeting, which took place on 21 February, Ambassador Merlin made proposals to cooperate in registering Mongolia’s geographical indication for the sea buckthorn of Uvs province. This would put the unique yellow berry, which has amazing medicinal and health benefits in the same category as champagne, cognac and camembert, which are all protected by the European geographical indication system.

In response, Minister Ch.Ulaan said “It would be our pleasure to join forces in registering geographical indications for special products of Mongolia including sea buckthorn of Uvs province, airag or fermented mare milk of Bulgan province, red skin garlic of Zavkhan province and honey of Khalkhgol soum, and exporting them to international markets”

The ambassador also proposed convening the technical committee in charge of assessing the implementation of the microloan project financed by the Food Aid Fund of France in the near future, and in removing barriers to exporting high-productivity cattle to Mongolia.

The Minister also backed the Ambassador’s proposal to assess the implementation of the above mentioned project, while expressing readiness to lend support towards complying with the additional sanitary and quarantine requirements by sending a working group of the General Specialised Inspection Agency to France.