Page 64 - bne_April 2021_20210401

64 I Eurasia bne April 2021
Tumurkhuyag, the "father of the concept of pastoral cheese in Mongolia".
A wild horse, the Dutch and
Mongolia’s Cheeseman
Antonio Graceffo
Mongolia is a country of
long, rolling steppes, with a population density of only two people per square kilometre, well-suited to the traditional occupation of herding animals. Even today, while the capital, Ulaanbaatar, is a large, reasonably modern city, 40% of the country’s population still live as nomadic herders, raising six animals which all give both milk and meat: cows, sheep, goats, yaks, horses and camels.
“I came to a conclusion that was pretty obvious. There are about a billion litres of milk laying around the [Mongolian] countryside, for which there is no market,” explained Michael Morrow, the American-born Cheeseman of Mongolia. Cheese making would create an income stream for herding families. It would also diversify and increase Mongolia’s exports, while helping the country to move up the value chain.
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Through the Mongolian Artisan Cheese Makers Union (MACU), founded in 2015, Michael hopes to establish
100 cheese plants, in rural, herding communities, teaching local people
to produce 2,000 tonnes of cheese per year.
Michael has lived four lifetimes, first
as a war correspondent in the Vietnam War, then as a businessman in Hong Kong and subsequently in China, and now as Mongolia’s Cheeseman. Starting with his work as a correspondent in the Vietnam War in 1966, Michael says he
Michael Morrow, the American-born Cheeseman of Mongolia.