Sale of reserve meat in disarray
Prime Minister S. Batbold has given city officials an order to sell bulk meat to medium and low-income households.
The order comes after the PM, along with the Ulaanbaatar City Administration and the Chairman of the Mongolia Meat association witnessed widespread corruption and disorganization at markets on Monday.
There was a long line of customers waiting to buy meat in Sukhbaatar District’s Sansar-32 Market on February 13. Shop assistants said that 1.5kg – 2.5kg of packaged meat was priced around 2,000 MNT less than average as a result the meat was sold out in 2 – 3 hours.
Sansar-32 Market sells small cut meat from reserves in addition to bulk meat, which they cut and prepare themselves. The vendors said that if this additional meat was not purchased, it would be impossible to make the reserve meat last a whole week.
L. Enkhtuya, CEO of the Sansar Supermarket chain, said, “Compared to the meat supplies of other markets, our supply is relatively stable because are partnered with Mongol Makh Export LLC. This does cause a lot of traffic, in terms of customers, so it is not always possible to uphold our policy that forbids a customer from buying meat more than three times a day.”
A Sansar Market customer was not as optimistic about the situation. He said, “If you had come here yesterday, you could have seen what was really happening. When a huge bulk of reserve meat was about to be sold, an argument broke out between the crowds and almost turned into a riot. The two police officers here were not able to control the 400 to 500 people in the chaotic crowd. There were many people who left empty handed after lining up to buy meat at 7 am.
It is very dangerous for the elderly and women. The vendors are also selling a lot less meat than they are supposed to. Their electronic weighing machine shows a weight value for the bulk meat; but when it is weighed on a smaller, traditional scale, it showed that it was 1 or 2 kilograms less than what it showed on the electronic one.“
After their stop at Sansar, the delegation visited Doloon Buudal’s meat market. The situation they found was far worse than that at Sansar.
People crowded around several trucks, all of them attempting to purchase bulk meat. Men, women, elderly citizens, and children were all pushing and waiting impatiently for the first truck to unload meat. There were people who were willing to sell their spots in lines. The whole event was filled with the frustration and anger from customers. Several vendors told the officials that, just like the customer at Sansar had reported, vendors are actually selling less meat than they are supposed to sell.
Some customers claimed that vendors have papers signed by city officials to have 100 kg of meat to sell, but sell much less. When requested by inspectors to present their signed papers and receipts, the sellers refuse to give the papers to them.
“When the trucks open they are only half full; which shows that the retailers on those trucks sell of half of the meat to other markets on their way here,” an elderly woman said.
City officials, who had just witnessed the illegal activities themselves, said the issue would be put into consideration and the responsible parties would face penalties and punishments.
After listening to countless complaints and frustrations from the public, the Prime Minister concluded that the sale of reserve meat was poorly organized.
S.Batbold requested additional methods to sell reserve meat during the summer, and plans will be discussed during this week’s Government Assembly Meeting. He added that the price of meat in the Ulaanbaatar – a country which has over 36 million livestock – is three times than the prices in rural areas of Mongolia; and agreed that the people are falling victim to the business interests of private sellers and vendors.
The order comes after the PM, along with the Ulaanbaatar City Administration and the Chairman of the Mongolia Meat association witnessed widespread corruption and disorganization at markets on Monday.
There was a long line of customers waiting to buy meat in Sukhbaatar District’s Sansar-32 Market on February 13. Shop assistants said that 1.5kg – 2.5kg of packaged meat was priced around 2,000 MNT less than average as a result the meat was sold out in 2 – 3 hours.
Sansar-32 Market sells small cut meat from reserves in addition to bulk meat, which they cut and prepare themselves. The vendors said that if this additional meat was not purchased, it would be impossible to make the reserve meat last a whole week.
L. Enkhtuya, CEO of the Sansar Supermarket chain, said, “Compared to the meat supplies of other markets, our supply is relatively stable because are partnered with Mongol Makh Export LLC. This does cause a lot of traffic, in terms of customers, so it is not always possible to uphold our policy that forbids a customer from buying meat more than three times a day.”
A Sansar Market customer was not as optimistic about the situation. He said, “If you had come here yesterday, you could have seen what was really happening. When a huge bulk of reserve meat was about to be sold, an argument broke out between the crowds and almost turned into a riot. The two police officers here were not able to control the 400 to 500 people in the chaotic crowd. There were many people who left empty handed after lining up to buy meat at 7 am.
It is very dangerous for the elderly and women. The vendors are also selling a lot less meat than they are supposed to. Their electronic weighing machine shows a weight value for the bulk meat; but when it is weighed on a smaller, traditional scale, it showed that it was 1 or 2 kilograms less than what it showed on the electronic one.“
After their stop at Sansar, the delegation visited Doloon Buudal’s meat market. The situation they found was far worse than that at Sansar.
People crowded around several trucks, all of them attempting to purchase bulk meat. Men, women, elderly citizens, and children were all pushing and waiting impatiently for the first truck to unload meat. There were people who were willing to sell their spots in lines. The whole event was filled with the frustration and anger from customers. Several vendors told the officials that, just like the customer at Sansar had reported, vendors are actually selling less meat than they are supposed to sell.
Some customers claimed that vendors have papers signed by city officials to have 100 kg of meat to sell, but sell much less. When requested by inspectors to present their signed papers and receipts, the sellers refuse to give the papers to them.
“When the trucks open they are only half full; which shows that the retailers on those trucks sell of half of the meat to other markets on their way here,” an elderly woman said.
City officials, who had just witnessed the illegal activities themselves, said the issue would be put into consideration and the responsible parties would face penalties and punishments.
After listening to countless complaints and frustrations from the public, the Prime Minister concluded that the sale of reserve meat was poorly organized.
S.Batbold requested additional methods to sell reserve meat during the summer, and plans will be discussed during this week’s Government Assembly Meeting. He added that the price of meat in the Ulaanbaatar – a country which has over 36 million livestock – is three times than the prices in rural areas of Mongolia; and agreed that the people are falling victim to the business interests of private sellers and vendors.
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