planned economy, all livestock was the property of the government and herd numbers were regulated, nomed aic herders were paid a salary by the government as long as they met quotas imposed for meat and dairy produce. there was only one state-owned factory that made cashmere products and most of these were exported to the soviet union and eastern bloc countries. in the early 1990s the socialist government collapsed and as a market economy was gradually introduced, private ownership of livestock increased. as unprocessed cashmere sells for nearly 50 times the price of regular sheep wool, most farmers expanded their herds of cashmere goats. in the early 1990s, there were about 5 million goats but over the following decade, up 'til today, that number has increased to more than 20 million. this dramatic increase in the volume of raw cashmere production has made it impossible for factories in mongolia to process the entire output. as mongolia transitioned into a market economy, china was also making significant investments into the cashmere industry. this included the construction of many cashmere