With this section on our website we are aiming to introduce the many possibilities and opportunities Mongolia can offer despite all the negative light shed lately through the international media.
The focus will be given on the businesses run both by Mongolians and foreigners in Mongolia, on their success stories, challenges and what are their aspirations.
As our first guest of the series, we have invited young and talented CEO Bolortuya Dorjsuren, mostly known as Beverly. Many of our readers might possibly have already become familiar with a name Seaberry. Our guest has founded the company and is successfully leading it to take the foreign markets with its organic skin care products and organic tea blends. Yet this is not the end. She has the vision to do more and is working on her next big project; we will get into more insight through her interview.
What have inspired you to start your own business in Mongolia?
My father has been cultivating seabuckthorn at his farm for over 10 years now. After graduation in U.S. I have been working for the Cailyn Cosmetics Company as Brand Manager for 8 years and have gained extensive experience in international cosmetics industry. Cailyn Cosmetics has businesses in 161 countries, so you can tell how big the company is.
I came back to Mongolia three years ago, with the purpose of helping my family business by developing new products based on the seabuckthorn oil extract and exporting other products blended with Mongolian-grown seabuckthorn. So I approached my business partner Donald Siegel, owner of the Turning Point Holdings company with operations in Mongolia, on potential partnership and joint venture. But Seaberry Farm is 100% Mongolian Company with activities in Mongolia and our farm is located in Tuv aimag.
From what you are saying it is very clear that with all the knowledge and experience gained with studying and working in USA you wanted to contribute to the development of Mongolia. So the next question is what was the driving force to come up with those specific products that Seaberry Farm is offering now?
First of all, we have conducted a huge research on what we can do with seabuckthorn and what properties this berry has. As of teas that we are producing, it was a decision based more on a business environment we have. It is inconvenient to export raw berries, and seabuckthorn juice, so in order to enhance our opportunities we came up with idea using dried leaves of the berry and making it into tea, as it contains most of the biologically active components of the berries on top of high amounts of protein and beta-carotene.
Other range of our products, we have conducted studies on seabuckthorn oil extract and what we can do with it in order to compete at global market. Especially when you have such a superfruit as seabuckthorn with strong healing and rejuvenating properties and our experience in cosmetics industry, we have developed skin care line.
I have researched for seabuckthorn before and it indeed is considered as the next superfruit on western markets and new farms of this berry are being established widely in Canada?
Canada, Germany and France familiar with seabuckthorn farming. Biggest seabuckthorn farming country as of now is China. Chinese government supported planting of seabuckthorn trees due to its properties to fight with desertification and to preventing soil erosion.
As for Seaberry, we focus on branding strategy, and I ‘d like to associate branding with the life experiences. Especially in western markets consumer’s behaviors are towards to organic, healthy products. In this regard, we work towards promoting our products being organic and moreover using raw products grown in Mongolia, by Mongolian farmers and processed on Mongolian soil.
Main direction of Seaberry farm is the exports of Mongolian seabuckthorn skin care products. What challenges have you faced or are you still facing with exporting goods to foreign markets?
Main challenge is to adhere to the health and safety standards, we are constantly working on the documentations of our products and we’ve been working with specialist from France and USA on product development and production. We are working with cosmetics manufacturers in Bali, Indonesia, which complies with all the ISO standards that are acknowledged globally, we send samples to Central Laboratory in Mongolia and Singapore for the necessary tests and comments. Without these document certifying the origin and compliance there is no way to do exports at all.
People might misunderstand as the production of the end user products is done at the manufactures in other country, whereas the essential product, which is the seabuckthorn oil extract, is produced here in Mongolia with berries grown by Mongolian farmers on Mongolian soil. What marketing tools do you use to promote your products?
We promote our products as Product of Mongolia. On packaging we place brief history of the berry, every promotion material tells the products are from Mongolia and it features the superfruit of Mongolia. Main ingredient is from Mongolia. Another distinctive feature is we are 100 percent Mongolian company and we have distribution channel in Singapore, because logistics is very poor in Mongolia and we do not have ports to ship directly. So it is convenient for our business partners to have access to our products at any given time.
We have talked about exporting the products. Which countries are you already exporting to?
We are now working on exporting our products to USA, Europe and Mainland China. Although our company was established three years ago, one year and half was spent on the product development phase. We had to do studies and research on what products to manufacture and where to manufacture them. This process alone takes time, as we need to study on the ingredients and how to mix them. Simultaneously we worked on how we should market our products and here we took the approach to promote Mongolia and Mongolian Seabuckthorn, as we cannot depend on mining alone and Mongolia has advantage in farming as well. Whenever people hear word Mongolia, the first thing that comes up to mind is nature and organic. This is our advantage, which we need to utilize. Based on these advantages we decided to compete in cosmetics, health and food sectors.
Our latest development is the contract to supply our product to one of the biggest organic food and products store chain Whole Foods in U.S.
When do you plan to introduce your products to Mongolian market?
We are starting to promote our products in Mongolia and we have contacted with supermarket chains to place our cosmetics products. On top of that we are doing TV commercials. But there are some obstacles for us in this sector as Mongolian consumers are more inclined to use imported cosmetics. But we can proudly say that we offer same quality products with one more advantage, which is organic. We do not use chemicals in our cosmetics or teas. We have received Organic Certification from the Mongolian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Thus our products can substitute any imported brand.
How are Mongolians supporting your project?
We are actually receiving positive feedbacks even from the rural residents and some of them would contact us and express their interest in our company and our products. I believe that Mongolia is very capable nation and Mongolians have the full potential of building strong businesses here. I hope that other young Mongolians would take example of what we are doing now and see the opportunities themselves.
What were the challenges in starting the business? Is there any support?
Mongolians actually are very supportive and there are actually many people who really understand us and help us a lot with the customs as we are exporting raw materials, as well as Mongolian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. On the other hand, there are obstacles with documentation. Due to the lack of digitized procedures we have to have so many copies of one document that is required at the different agencies and entities, although those entities are all connected to each other. This takes a lot of time and effort from our side, but we have to adhere to the procedures. There is no efficiency in documents processing, there is lack of online submission of documents.
How are the products welcomed at the roadshows?
It is very different and depends on the market. For instance, in Europe and U.S. they are very open and get interested once they know it is from Mongolia, while in Asian market the situation is much different. Asian countries have leaped far in cosmetics industry and there is vast variety of products on the market. It takes more time and effort with introducing our products; sometimes the process is similar to educating the consumers on the benefits of seabuckthorn and organic products. Japan and Korea are somehow good, but we are facing challenges in Asia.
Why do you emphasize on Mongolian Seabuckthorn? Does it have more richness of its components compared to, for instance, Chinese seabuckthorn?
It does indeed. The percentage of the components found in Mongolian seabuckthorn is much higher than any other. Also our laboratory tests have proven that Mongolian seabuckthorn has more anti-aging qualities than of grown in other countries. And that specific quality comes from the location and harsh weather conditions.
Are you planning to enhance the range of food products or you will limit the production with tea?
In terms of food or drinks it has some downfalls as we are organic producer and the juices or bottled products require additives or preservatives to have some shelf life. As I have mentioned before, Mongolia is landlocked country and it takes time to transport from here. So we are focusing more on cosmetics and health products. Also as we aim to produce only organic products, we use only natural ingredients.
You mentioned about the foreign partners and inviting the researchers from abroad, which bear costs. Are the operations of the company profitable yet to cover those expenses?
It will take two more years to actually have profits, as we have been working to come up at global level, we bear huge costs. We are competing with giants in the industry who have been around for at least 10 years and some have the history of 50-100 years. We have to have strong marketing strategy and strong team of professionals.
About my partner Don Siegel, he is professional in cosmetics world and he was fascinated with our project and supports our activities a lot.
How many employees do you have currently?
At farm we have 30 employees, while during the harvesting time the number increases to 80 during the summer and at the headquarters we have 4 administrative employees. Moreover, during the harvest local farms also supply their harvest and oil. Also we have many both international, and local sub-contracting companies: marketing, design, product development and financial etc. In other words, we are creating value for other companies and businesses as well and we are aiming to unlock opportunities for other seabuckthorn farmers operating in Mongolia, through our channels.
More on the upcoming project?
We are aiming to create hydroponic farming at our land in Tuv aimag and we are currently raising funds to start the project. We have developed the concept and have everything set ready to start. The mission is to apply proven hydroponic, aquaponic and greenhouse technologies to create 12 months production cycle for fruits, vegetables, herbs and fish. We are hoping to reduce the country’s reliance on imports and to provide rich and nutrient rich food and create more employment opportunities for Mongolians. Here we are aiming to utilize renewable energy to power the operations and have as less impact on environment as possible with introduction of new technologies.
Moreover, we envision this project to become one of the favourite tourist attractions, as it will also offer accomodation, spa services using our cosmetic products and a chance to relax in fresh air, having advantage of very central location.
Thank you for your time and we wish all the success in your endeavors.
Photo credits: D.Javkhlantugs
With this section on our website we are aiming to introduce the many possibilities and opportunities Mongolia can offer despite all the negative light shed lately through the international media.
The focus will be given on the businesses run both by Mongolians and foreigners in Mongolia, on their success stories, challenges and what are their aspirations.
As our first guest of the series, we have invited young and talented CEO Bolortuya Dorjsuren, mostly known as Beverly. Many of our readers might possibly have already become familiar with a name Seaberry. Our guest has founded the company and is successfully leading it to take the foreign markets with its organic skin care products and organic tea blends. Yet this is not the end. She has the vision to do more and is working on her next big project; we will get into more insight through her interview.
What have inspired you to start your own business in Mongolia?
My father has been cultivating seabuckthorn at his farm for over 10 years now. After graduation in U.S. I have been working for the Cailyn Cosmetics Company as Brand Manager for 8 years and have gained extensive experience in international cosmetics industry. Cailyn Cosmetics has businesses in 161 countries, so you can tell how big the company is.
I came back to Mongolia three years ago, with the purpose of helping my family business by developing new products based on the seabuckthorn oil extract and exporting other products blended with Mongolian-grown seabuckthorn. So I approached my business partner Donald Siegel, owner of the Turning Point Holdings company with operations in Mongolia, on potential partnership and joint venture. But Seaberry Farm is 100% Mongolian Company with activities in Mongolia and our farm is located in Tuv aimag.
From what you are saying it is very clear that with all the knowledge and experience gained with studying and working in USA you wanted to contribute to the development of Mongolia. So the next question is what was the driving force to come up with those specific products that Seaberry Farm is offering now?
First of all, we have conducted a huge research on what we can do with seabuckthorn and what properties this berry has. As of teas that we are producing, it was a decision based more on a business environment we have. It is inconvenient to export raw berries, and seabuckthorn juice, so in order to enhance our opportunities we came up with idea using dried leaves of the berry and making it into tea, as it contains most of the biologically active components of the berries on top of high amounts of protein and beta-carotene.
Other range of our products, we have conducted studies on seabuckthorn oil extract and what we can do with it in order to compete at global market. Especially when you have such a superfruit as seabuckthorn with strong healing and rejuvenating properties and our experience in cosmetics industry, we have developed skin care line.
I have researched for seabuckthorn before and it indeed is considered as the next superfruit on western markets and new farms of this berry are being established widely in Canada?
Canada, Germany and France familiar with seabuckthorn farming. Biggest seabuckthorn farming country as of now is China. Chinese government supported planting of seabuckthorn trees due to its properties to fight with desertification and to preventing soil erosion.
As for Seaberry, we focus on branding strategy, and I ‘d like to associate branding with the life experiences. Especially in western markets consumer’s behaviors are towards to organic, healthy products. In this regard, we work towards promoting our products being organic and moreover using raw products grown in Mongolia, by Mongolian farmers and processed on Mongolian soil.
Main direction of Seaberry farm is the exports of Mongolian seabuckthorn skin care products. What challenges have you faced or are you still facing with exporting goods to foreign markets?
Main challenge is to adhere to the health and safety standards, we are constantly working on the documentations of our products and we’ve been working with specialist from France and USA on product development and production. We are working with cosmetics manufacturers in Bali, Indonesia, which complies with all the ISO standards that are acknowledged globally, we send samples to Central Laboratory in Mongolia and Singapore for the necessary tests and comments. Without these document certifying the origin and compliance there is no way to do exports at all.
People might misunderstand as the production of the end user products is done at the manufactures in other country, whereas the essential product, which is the seabuckthorn oil extract, is produced here in Mongolia with berries grown by Mongolian farmers on Mongolian soil. What marketing tools do you use to promote your products?
We promote our products as Product of Mongolia. On packaging we place brief history of the berry, every promotion material tells the products are from Mongolia and it features the superfruit of Mongolia. Main ingredient is from Mongolia. Another distinctive feature is we are 100 percent Mongolian company and we have distribution channel in Singapore, because logistics is very poor in Mongolia and we do not have ports to ship directly. So it is convenient for our business partners to have access to our products at any given time.
We have talked about exporting the products. Which countries are you already exporting to?
We are now working on exporting our products to USA, Europe and Mainland China. Although our company was established three years ago, one year and half was spent on the product development phase. We had to do studies and research on what products to manufacture and where to manufacture them. This process alone takes time, as we need to study on the ingredients and how to mix them. Simultaneously we worked on how we should market our products and here we took the approach to promote Mongolia and Mongolian Seabuckthorn, as we cannot depend on mining alone and Mongolia has advantage in farming as well. Whenever people hear word Mongolia, the first thing that comes up to mind is nature and organic. This is our advantage, which we need to utilize. Based on these advantages we decided to compete in cosmetics, health and food sectors.
Our latest development is the contract to supply our product to one of the biggest organic food and products store chain Whole Foods in U.S.
When do you plan to introduce your products to Mongolian market?
We are starting to promote our products in Mongolia and we have contacted with supermarket chains to place our cosmetics products. On top of that we are doing TV commercials. But there are some obstacles for us in this sector as Mongolian consumers are more inclined to use imported cosmetics. But we can proudly say that we offer same quality products with one more advantage, which is organic. We do not use chemicals in our cosmetics or teas. We have received Organic Certification from the Mongolian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Thus our products can substitute any imported brand.
How are Mongolians supporting your project?
We are actually receiving positive feedbacks even from the rural residents and some of them would contact us and express their interest in our company and our products. I believe that Mongolia is very capable nation and Mongolians have the full potential of building strong businesses here. I hope that other young Mongolians would take example of what we are doing now and see the opportunities themselves.
What were the challenges in starting the business? Is there any support?
Mongolians actually are very supportive and there are actually many people who really understand us and help us a lot with the customs as we are exporting raw materials, as well as Mongolian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. On the other hand, there are obstacles with documentation. Due to the lack of digitized procedures we have to have so many copies of one document that is required at the different agencies and entities, although those entities are all connected to each other. This takes a lot of time and effort from our side, but we have to adhere to the procedures. There is no efficiency in documents processing, there is lack of online submission of documents.
How are the products welcomed at the roadshows?
It is very different and depends on the market. For instance, in Europe and U.S. they are very open and get interested once they know it is from Mongolia, while in Asian market the situation is much different. Asian countries have leaped far in cosmetics industry and there is vast variety of products on the market. It takes more time and effort with introducing our products; sometimes the process is similar to educating the consumers on the benefits of seabuckthorn and organic products. Japan and Korea are somehow good, but we are facing challenges in Asia.
Why do you emphasize on Mongolian Seabuckthorn? Does it have more richness of its components compared to, for instance, Chinese seabuckthorn?
It does indeed. The percentage of the components found in Mongolian seabuckthorn is much higher than any other. Also our laboratory tests have proven that Mongolian seabuckthorn has more anti-aging qualities than of grown in other countries. And that specific quality comes from the location and harsh weather conditions.
Are you planning to enhance the range of food products or you will limit the production with tea?
In terms of food or drinks it has some downfalls as we are organic producer and the juices or bottled products require additives or preservatives to have some shelf life. As I have mentioned before, Mongolia is landlocked country and it takes time to transport from here. So we are focusing more on cosmetics and health products. Also as we aim to produce only organic products, we use only natural ingredients.
You mentioned about the foreign partners and inviting the researchers from abroad, which bear costs. Are the operations of the company profitable yet to cover those expenses?
It will take two more years to actually have profits, as we have been working to come up at global level, we bear huge costs. We are competing with giants in the industry who have been around for at least 10 years and some have the history of 50-100 years. We have to have strong marketing strategy and strong team of professionals.
About my partner Don Siegel, he is professional in cosmetics world and he was fascinated with our project and supports our activities a lot.
How many employees do you have currently?
At farm we have 30 employees, while during the harvesting time the number increases to 80 during the summer and at the headquarters we have 4 administrative employees. Moreover, during the harvest local farms also supply their harvest and oil. Also we have many both international, and local sub-contracting companies: marketing, design, product development and financial etc. In other words, we are creating value for other companies and businesses as well and we are aiming to unlock opportunities for other seabuckthorn farmers operating in Mongolia, through our channels.
More on the upcoming project?
We are aiming to create hydroponic farming at our land in Tuv aimag and we are currently raising funds to start the project. We have developed the concept and have everything set ready to start. The mission is to apply proven hydroponic, aquaponic and greenhouse technologies to create 12 months production cycle for fruits, vegetables, herbs and fish. We are hoping to reduce the country’s reliance on imports and to provide rich and nutrient rich food and create more employment opportunities for Mongolians. Here we are aiming to utilize renewable energy to power the operations and have as less impact on environment as possible with introduction of new technologies.
Moreover, we envision this project to become one of the favourite tourist attractions, as it will also offer accomodation, spa services using our cosmetic products and a chance to relax in fresh air, having advantage of very central location.
Thank you for your time and we wish all the success in your endeavors.
Photo credits: D.Javkhlantugs