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For the same reason, lawful slaughtering of animals has started in the country to export meat to Iran.
Mongolian butcher Kuntuguan Ajbai chants under his breath as he slits the throat of a sheep with a single stroke of his sharpened knife, making sure the animal’s swift death is halal--acceptable under the laws of Islam, Reuters reported.
Kuntuguan’s work at a slaughterhouse in the city of Darkhan, about 100 miles (160 km) from the nation’s capital, comes amid surging demand from Iran for halal meat and as Mongolia pushes to make more money from the huge herds of livestock that roam its vast grasslands.
“This is a special ritual we do while slaughtering,” said Kuntuguan, a 27-year-old Muslim of Kazakh extraction, his rubber boots and white apron splattered with blood.
“We do it in the name of Allah to get permission to kill the animals.”
Mongolia has an estimated 30 million sheep--more than New Zealand--but has until recently only managed to export a thin slice of its overall meat output. It hopes that will change as it taps overseas appetite for halal mutton from places such as Iran, which are forced to import due to limited local production.
Largely because of that kind of new demand, Mongolia’s sheep and goat meat shipments hit 2,601 tons in 2017, 11 times more than 2016.
And while that was worth only around $ 8 million, industry officials say those volumes are likely just the start, with exports in the first-half of 2018 quadrupling year-on-year to 775.6 tons.
'The halal meat market is growing worldwide, promising new opportunities for Mongolia,' said Ochirbat Begz, executive director of the Mongolia Meat Association.
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