Startup HempMongolia is inviting investors to look into the country’s potential for hemp farming and production by hosting an investor forum set for mid-August during which participants can meet government officials.
“We need investors to help us accelerate production,” said Anar Artur, CEO at Ulaanbaatar-based HempMongolia. “Our goal is to develop Mongolia into one of the most advanced agricultural economies in Central Asia. Hemp can play a huge part in that.”
HempMongolia has been working for the past three years enlightening government agencies about hemp’s promise for the land-locked nation, which is sandwiched between China and Russia.
International trade corridor
Anar sees Mongolia becoming an international trade corridor bridging European and Asian economies, with the nation developing into a regional supplier of a wide range of hemp products. Favorable tax incentives, inexpensive labor and cheap land lease fees are all investment incentives, Anar noted.
With the Mongolian government just now rolling out a strategic plan for agriculture after years of inertia in the sector, Anar’s team believes hemp can be a blue-chip crop in any national farming program, and be a catalyst for innovation.
Ministry and department level officials who’ll make themselves available to visiting hemp stakeholders during the “Hemp Industry Development Perspectives” forum, set for August 11-13 in Ulaanbaatar, represent environmental, farming, entrepreneurship, policy, planning, international cooperation, light industry, health, drugs, technology and manufacturing interests inside the Mongolian government, Anar said.
Hemp industrial complex planned
HempMongolia, which started in 2015, was Mongolia’s first company authorized by the Ministry of Health to farm, process, transport, carry out domestic market retail and wholesale distribution activities, and export CBD oils.
The company is working with the Mongolian Innovation Center, a new agency that’s advancing technology supply chain development and diversification policy, on plans to develop a complex of industrial processing facilities to turn out hurd for hempcrete, technical fiber, CBD extracts, hemp fiber, nano cellulose, bio fuel and hemp foods. That project is envisioned for the city of Baganuur, a licensed tax free zone for innovation hubs and industrial manufacturing entities.
Meanwhile, HempMongolia has potential to expand its land usage rights up to 20,000 hectares in the Khentii region of Mongolia, where the company put in its first trial crop this year. Anar said many traditional agricultural firms in Mongolia have expressed an interest in farming hemp as well.
