Publication: From Goats to Coats : Institutional Reform in Mongolia's Cashmere Sector
Loading...
Date
2003-12-19
ISSN
Published
2003-12-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Mongolian cashmere industry has experienced a series of booms and busts over the last decade. Unsatisfactory public sector policies contributed to this result. External factors such as the unfavorable economic environment of the early 1990s, the East Asia crisis, and weather conditions have also affected its performance. Over 1993-96 cashmere exports doubled from US$33.5 million to US$71.2 million, as cashmere's share in exports increased from 9.2 to 16.8 percent. Cashmere exports weakened in 1997 and 1998, recovered briefly in 1999-2000, and faltered again in 2002 to US$45.2 million, below their 1996 levels. Cashmere's share in exports fell from 16.8 to 8.6 percent over 1996-2002. Within this background, the report examines the industry's five principal shortcomings: supply distortions; decreasing cashmere quality, demand imperfections, inadequate marketing and distribution systems, and poor public and private institutional capacity to guide industrial policy development. The lack of an efficient public sector to provide public goods, inadequate strategic business development policies, and unregulated and outdated production patterns have stifled competition, and prevented the industry from reaching its potential. Mongolia's cashmere industry has moved only marginally up the value-added chain beyond primary production, leaving it especially vulnerable to changes in market demand. It also examines Mongolia's current legal and administrative mechanisms for regulating grazing land - poorly understood by central and local governments that also frequently lack the capacity to implement the laws. The 1995 Land Law gave local governments broad authority to regulate grazing. With clarification of their legal mandates and capacity-building interventions, local governments, perhaps in partnership with local herding associations, would be capable of regulating pasture use. This paper examines the structure, conduct, and organization of Mongolia's cashmere industry and discusses the strategic supply chain linkages needed to improve its production, marketing, and competitiveness. The paper looks at how agents along the cashmere industry supply chain can generate collective efficiencies and gain competitive advantages by deepening collaboration. It also examines how public policy affects industry and firm decisions on cashmere production and marketing systems, and the incomes of herders and rural communities. It suggests a set of actions and policies for the private and public sectors - including the donor community - to facilitate cashmere's transition to a truly competitive industry. Highlighted are existing initiatives to improve market coordination, and generate cost savings, and propose areas for expansion.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2003. From Goats to Coats : Institutional Reform in Mongolia's Cashmere Sector. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14431 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Mongolia : Livestock Sector Study(Washington, DC, 2009-09-15)The purpose of this synthesis report is to try and draw together recent work on the sector to understand in greater detail what is driving the sector, and how these drivers and trends may play out in the future and what options are available in response. This is not a strategy for the sector, but rather an attempt to provide some clarity to the development of the sector as a basis for stimulating discussion to inform strategy and specifically, to inform government policy and expenditure in the sector. The report draws upon five working papers (WPs) that were commissioned by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in 2006 and 2007 . These papers tried to fill gaps in current knowledge of drivers in the sector rather than provide a comprehensive study of the sector, and their findings have been supplemented by other work in the sector.Publication Priorities for Sustainable Growth : A Strategy for Agriculture Sector Development in Tajikistan, Technical Annex 3. Livestock Sector Review(Washington, DC, 2012-01)Agriculture sector growth has made a powerful contribution to post-war economic recovery in Tajikistan, accounting for approximately one third of overall economic growth from 1998 to 2004. Sector output increased by 65 percent in real terms during this period, and has now returned to the level extant at independence in 1990. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) has also increased, by 3 percent per year. Despite this progress, there is legitimate concern that this growth is unsustainable. Evidence suggests that it has been driven largely by the external factors noted above, rather than substantive changes to resources, incentives and the behavior of factor and commodity markets. First, an extensive program of policy reform, particularly in the area of land ownership, has yet to make a substantial impact on the incentive structure for agricultural workers cultivating the majority of arable land. Second, sustainable growth requires positive net investment. Third, commodity markets remain weak, with a limited capacity to translate increased demand into improved production incentives. And fourth, growth in crop production has been largely driven by low value food and cereal crops. A sustainable increase in access to rural finance will require much greater emphasis on the development of alternative sources of finance for all of agriculture, in addition to resolution of the cotton debt crisis. The capacity for agricultural loan appraisal and management also needs to be strengthened, new collateral instruments introduced and new loan products developed, which are suited to agriculture in general and small-scale farmers in particular.Publication Kyrgyz Republic - Livestock Sector Review : Embracing the New Challenges(Washington, DC, 2007-01)Continuing a long Kyrgyz tradition, the livestock sector is one of the strongest components of the rural economy. The sector contributes substantially to the national economy by providing high value food, income, employment and foreign exchange. There are also significant indirect benefits which include reduced risks to human health, more sustainable use of arable land and pastures, access to lucrative markets and the possibility to add value to livestock products. The processing and marketing of livestock products are also attractive to women. Available evidence suggests that recent growth in the value of sector output was due mostly to a strong increase in producer prices and only a small increase in productivity - despite the ample scope for growth of the latter. Productivity levels are low - number of calves/lambs born per 100 cows/ewes, milk yields, wool output and animal growth rates fall well short of genetic potential of the current mix of animal breeds and international industry standards. Current levels of animal productivity are low - due to poor nutrition, the high incidence of diseases, heavy affliction with parasites, and poor animal and farm management.Publication Minding the Stock : Bringing Public Policy to Bear on Livestock Sector Development(World Bank, 2009-01-01)Driven by population growth, urbanization, and increased income, the demand for animal-source food products in developing countries is rapidly increasing. Livestock, which already constitutes 30 percent of the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the developing world, and about 40 percent of the global agricultural GDP, is one of the fastest-growing subsectors in agriculture. Growing demand presents real opportunities for economic growth and poverty reduction in rural areas. It could directly benefit the one billion poor people who depend on livestock as a source of income and subsistence. Livestock also provides traction for about 50 percent of the world's farmers and is a source of organic fertilizer for most of the world's croplands, converting waste products into inputs in the production of high-value food. For these reasons, the sector has a critical role to play in making agriculture sustainable, in reducing poverty, and in contributing to economic growth. This report presents an analysis of the issues related to market failures in the livestock sector, and an examination of policy and investment options that can be used to overcome them. Its principal intended audience includes policy makers and development practitioners. Much of the analysis will focus on identifying the needs of the public sector as it sets out to redress the imbalance between public and private investment and to begin establishing an enabling environment in which private sector livestock development can take place in a way that is consistent with public health, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. While the report focuses on developing countries, much of its treatment pertains to industrialized countries as well, particularly with respect to issues of crosscutting global significance, such as greenhouse gas emissions and emerging highly infectious diseases.Publication Mongolia Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-03)The magnitude of risks facing Mongolian agriculture has made the sector’s development extraordinarily volatile over the last 25 years as it underwent decollectivization. Livestock in particular has seen rapid and largely unsustainable rates of growth in terms of numbers of animals and herders, and in so doing has become acutely vulnerable to the severe winter weather events known as dzuds. Periodic droughts and other production risks have also affected the country’s much smaller crop agriculture, much of which is geared for the production of feeds. And price volatility poses serious systemic risks which affect large proportions of the rural population. This study was undertaken to assess the systemic risks facing Mongolian agriculture and to identify gaps in current risk management practices within the sector.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Guide to the Debt Management Performance Assessment Tool(Washington, DC, 2008-02-05)The purpose of this document is to provide guidance and supplemental information to assist with country assessments of debt management performance, using the Debt Management Performance Assessment (DeMPA) tool. The DeMPA is a methodology used for assessing public debt management performance through a comprehensive set of 15 performance indicators spanning the full range of government Debt Management (DeM) functions. It is based on the principles set out in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank guidelines for public debt management, initially published in 2001 and updated in 2003. It is modeled after the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) framework for performance measurement of public financial management. The DeMPA has been designed to be a user-friendly tool to undertake an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in government DeM practices. This guide provides additional background and supporting information so that a no specialist in the area of debt management may undertake a country assessment effectively. The guide can be used by assessors in preparing for and undertaking an assessment. It is particularly useful for understanding the rationale for the inclusion of the indicators, the scoring methodology, and the list of supporting documents or evidence required, and the questions that could be asked for the assessment.Publication The Mexican Social Protection System in Health(World Bank, Washington DC, 2013-01)With a population of 113 million and a per-capita Gross Domestic Product, or GDP of US$10,064 (current U.S. dollars), Mexico is one of the largest and highest-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The country has benefited from sustained economic growth during the last decade, which was temporarily interrupted by the financial and economic crisis. Real GDP is projected to grow 3.8 percent and 3.6 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively (International Monetary Fund, or IMF 2012). Despite this growth, poverty in the country remains high; with half of the population living below the national poverty line. The country is also highly heterogeneous, with large socioeconomic differences across states and across urban and rural areas. In 2010, while the extreme poverty ratio in the Federal District and the states of Colima and Nuevo Leon was below 3 percent, in Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca it was 25 percent or higher. These large regional differences are also found in other indicators of well-being, such as years of schooling, housing conditions, and access to social services. This case study assesses key features and achievements of the Social Protection System in Health (Sistema de Proteccion Social en Salud) in Mexico, and particularly of its main pillar, Popular Health Insurance (Seguro Popular, PHI). It analyzes the contribution of this policy to the establishment and implementation of universal health coverage in Mexico. In 2003, with the reform of the General Health Law, the PHI was institutionalized as a subsidized health insurance scheme open to the population not covered by the social security schemes. Today, the PHI covers all of its intended affiliates, about 52 million peoplePublication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Crime and Violence in Central America : A Development Challenge - Main Report(World Bank, 2011-01-01)Crime and violence are now a key development issue for Central American countries. In three nations El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras crime rates are among the top five in Latin America. This report argues that successful strategies require actions along multiple fronts, combining prevention and criminal justice reform, together with regional approaches in the areas of drug trafficking and firearms. It also argues that interventions should be evidence based, starting with a clear understanding of the risk factors involved and ending with a careful evaluation of how any planned action might affect future options. In addition, the design of national crime reduction plans and the establishment of national cross-sectoral crime commissions are important steps to coordinate the actions of different government branches, ease cross-sectoral collaboration and prioritize resource allocation. Of equal importance is the fact that national plans offer a vehicle for the involvement of civil society organizations, in which much of the expertise in violence prevention and rehabilitation resides. Prevention efforts need to be complemented by effective law enforcement. The required reforms are no longer primarily legislative in nature because all six countries have advanced toward more transparent adversarial criminal procedures. The second-generation reforms should instead help deliver on the promises of previous reforms by: (i) strengthening key institutions and improving the quality and timeliness of the services they provide to citizens; (ii) improving efficiency and effectiveness while respecting due process and human rights; (iii) ensuring accountability and addressing corruption; (iv) increasing inter-agency collaboration; and (v) improving access to justice, especially for poor and disenfranchised groups. Specific interventions reviewed in the report include: information systems and performance indicators as a prerequisite to improve inter-institutional coordination and information sharing mechanisms; an internal overhaul of court administration and case management to create rapid reaction, one-stop shops; the strengthening of entities that provide legal counseling to the poor and to women; and the promotion of alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms and the implementation of community policing programs.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.