The World Packaging Organisation (WPO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have concluded a project aimed at enhancing the food packaging sector in Mongolia and aligning it with international standards.

The initiative, part of the Mongolia Export Development Project (EDP), focused on strengthening certification services to boost the export competitiveness of the country’s small and medium-sized (SME) agri-businesses.

The project was funded by the World Bank’s International Development Association and initiated in response to Mongolia’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry (MOFALI) invitation.

The EDP aims to support Mongolian SMEs in non-mining sectors, supporting their export capabilities and access to foreign markets.

Under the guidance of UNIDO’s Sustainable Food Systems Division, the collaboration developed food and non-food-related certification services that meet market requirements and are recognized by domestic and international buyers, necessitating practical guidelines to ensure safe food production within the Mongolian food supply chain.

“Our job was just one in a bigger project group,” WPO’s general secretary Dr. Johannes Bergmair, tells Packaging Insights.

“The aim was to develop GMP (Good Manufacturing Praxis) guidelines for the Mongolian food supply chain. Besides our GMP guideline for producing packaging for food, other papers, for example, food services, milk and flour, have been established. All those guidelines are based on WHO Codex Alimentarius, which was quite a challenge for the packaging sector.”

“The local authorities will now implement the guidelines: MOFALI is the relevant ministry for the food and light industry. A series of training materials have been developed within the project to facilitate this implementation and the training needed for this process.”

Hygiene and chemical safety
The guidelines developed by WPO and UNIDO draw upon international standards, including the WHO Codex Alimentarius, and incorporate best practices from across the globe.

These guidelines cover various aspects of food production, including packaging, food services, milk and flour. By adhering to these guidelines, Mongolian food producers can ensure compliance with international standards and enhance their competitiveness in global markets.

The team started by reviewing all the project-related documentation and liaising with national and international experts to understand the project scope clearly. The result was two guides, one to compliance for the identified actors and another to best practices for the recognized actors along the value chain.

“The packaging sector in Mongolia is quite strong, and there is even a packaging association in Ulan Bataar named MUPA, which has become a full member of WPO after our first mission there in 2019,” says Bergmair.

“On the other hand, many packaging materials are still imported, and the knowledge about hygienic production processes and safe usage of packaging systems (mainly about chemical migration from packaging to food) is still low. For example, plastic drums from mining and chemical industries are used to store milk products, especially in rural areas.”

“In the case of the packaging GMP guideline, we had a lot of input from our local member organization (MUPA), packaging-related people from the ministry and we had our experiences from the ground visit to the packaging and food industry from earlier projects in Mongolia.”

Work in progress
Luciana Pellegrino, president of WPO, stresses the importance of developing guidelines to facilitate good practices in the food packaging industry. She says the guidelines, coupled with a comprehensive training course, will be instrumental in supporting the implementation process led by MOFALI.

The collaboration resulted from effective teamwork and preparation. “With a good team and preparation, you can achieve a lot, even in a short period, and that for sure happened in Mongolia,” says Bergmair.

He adds that the biggest challenge in meeting international standards in Mongolia was “to make it realistic, usable and useful for Mongolian packaging companies.”

“Truthfully, I still see it as a work in progress. We now have those GMP guidelines. I’m sure many possible improvements can be identified within the implementation process. Those will be (hopefully) integrated into the guidelines in the future.”