ULAN BATOR - The Mongolian Commodity Exchange (MCE) announced on Friday its intention to carry out cross-border trade with China's Bohai Commodity Exchange (BOCE) starting in mid-April to help Mongolian agricultural products enter the Chinese market.

"Big manufacturers expressed their willingness to buy wool and cashmere through the Chinese commodity exchange. We are aiming to export cashmere and wool not only to China, but also to other countries, including Italy and Japan. Also we hope that we will be able to export directly to Europe in the future," MCE Chief Executive Kh Baatar told a press conference on Friday.

"Thanks to direct contact for commodity exchange, pastoralists can sell their products to end users at higher prices. Initially, we plan to sell cashmere," he added.

The cross-border trade through commodity exchanges of the two countries will be conducted online five times a week.

In 2017, 7,000 tons of washed cashmere was sold on the MCE with a total value of 521 billion MNT ($217.99 million).

The major suppliers of world cashmere raw materials are Mongolia, China, India, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia. Mongolia is the supplier of about 40 percent of the world's raw cashmere.

It is estimated that Mongolia has a total of 27 million goats, and an annual cashmere production capacity of 9,400 tons.