'Golden brands' of the grasslands shining brighter than ever

At dawn on the vast grasslands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, you can see two very different scenes. One is akin to a centuries-old pastoral painting: the wind sweeping across the grass, revealing herds of cattle and sheep. The other is the industrial rhythm of a modern dairy farm, with cows lining up and walking into a milking parlor one after another.

Historically, Inner Mongolia was a stop along the ancient Grassland Silk Road, where camel caravans carried tea across the deserts. It was also part of the ancient Tea Road, a major trade route whose merchants connected China, Mongolia and Russia.

Today, Inner Mongolia is no longer merely a passageway. As an important node in the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, it is turning itself into one of the corridor's most dynamic brand stations.

In 2025, Inner Mongolia's grain output reached more than 42 billion kilograms, marking the 22nd consecutive year of growth and ranking fifth nationwide. But even more prominent than its reputation as a "granary" are two other titles: a "meat warehouse" and a "milk tank". The autonomous region ranks first in China in the output of beef, mutton, milk and cashmere.

Yet people in Inner Mongolia know that these figures are only the backdrop of the grasslands. The real story is being written in brands.

At 5 am, a ranch on the outskirts of Hohhot, capital city of Inner Mongolia, is still shrouded in light mist as cows line up and walk into the milking parlor, where a robotic equipment completes milking, measurement and cooling with a steady mechanical rhythm. The fresh milk flows directly through pipelines into the cold-chain system. Forty-eight hours later, the same batch of milk may be found on the shelves of a premium supermarket in Beijing, or on a high-end shelf in a shopping mall in Dubai, UAE.

This is everyday life for leading dairy companies Yili and Mengniu, and the confidence behind Hohhot's reputation as China's "dairy capital".

Yili began on Hohhot's grasslands and has since built a global network of 81 production bases and 15 research and development centers, with its products reaching consumers in more than 60 countries and regions.

In 2025, the company reported revenue of 115.93 billion yuan ($17.27 billion), while net profit reached a record 11.56 billion yuan.

Behind those numbers lies a fundamental shift: Yili is selling brands, not merely raw materials. A value chain stretching from raw milk at the farm to high-value-added products is taking shape. Yili has established a presence across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, Europe and the Americas. Its overseas business has generated revenue in tens of billions of yuan, and the company is gradually moving beyond simply exporting products toward building a full-industry-chain presence overseas.

Mengniu, also born on the grasslands, has followed a different path toward brand upgrading. Its revenue in 2025 remained among the industry's leading figures, but its growth model is different. Rather than pursuing scale in every direction, it has focused on specialization and refinement.

Its international infant-formula brands have expanded steadily overseas, with products entering more than a dozen countries and bringing Chinese-developed formulas to babies abroad. Its cheese products have maintained the largest market share in China. It's expansion into new product categories has continued to increase value added.

The branding story of Inner Mongolia goes far beyond milk.

Cashmere from Ordos may be growing on goats one day and woven into haute couture for Paris Fashion Week in France the next. Lamb from Xiliin Gol may be grazing on the grasslands in the morning and become a signature dish at a premium hotpot restaurant in Shanghai by evening. Beef from Hulunbuir — carrying credentials for grass-fed production, organic standards and traceability — can travel across borders and reach premium supermarkets in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

The gifts of the grasslands are no longer commodities simply sold by weight. They now have names, stories and standards, and command a premium.

From pasture to table, from the grasslands to the world, a new value chain is quietly taking shape. From milk and cashmere to mutton and beef, Inner Mongolia's agricultural and livestock products are no longer merely raw materials. They are becoming trusted names backed by standards and stories.

Building and developing these brands, however, requires more than corporate effort. The branding of Inner Mongolia's agricultural and livestock products is not the result of companies fighting their battles alone. Coordinated efforts by the government, businesses, and farmers and herders, backed by a systematic approach, helped establish a comprehensive policy framework to strengthen agriculture and animal husbandry through branding.

To address challenges in the dairy sector, Inner Mongolia has introduced measures such as giving interest subsidies on loans, insurance against fluctuations in prices of fresh milk, extended subsidies for processing fresh milk into milk powder, and support for integrated breeding and processing operations. These measures have helped dairy producers weather difficulties and provided important support for the industry's continued high-quality development.

The region has formulated 31 special implementation plans, creating an integrated support system featuring policy guidance, detailed implementation plans and concrete measures. It has built 96 large-scale dairy farms with more than 3,000 cows each and upgraded 913 small- and medium-sized farms. The share of Holstein cows raised on large-scale farms has reached 96 percent, placing Inner Mongolia among the national leaders.

The Inner Mongolia government has issued an implementation plan for comprehensively advancing rural vitalization and accelerating the modernization of agriculture, rural areas and pastoral areas. The plan focuses on Inner Mongolia's strategic role as a national production base for important agricultural and livestock products, and sets out a series of practical measures to raise agricultural and livestock production capacity and improve quality and efficiency, promote deep processing, and develop green and organic brands.

In 2020, Inner Mongolia officially launched the "Meng" brand, designed to serve as a seal of trust for grassland product quality. Earning the right to display this mark is no mean task. The region has established five major systems covering standards, certification, industrial development, quality control and comprehensive services, providing quality oversight from pasture to table.

The region is also aligning "Meng" certification standards with international ones and certifying more than 30 companies, while exploring classification and grading standards for beef. Key regional brands are being developed for Inner Mongolian beef, mutton, cheese, coarse grains and cool-season vegetables, while marketing centers, wholesale outlets and shared front warehouses for these products are being established in major consumer cities across China. It is also advancing the internet plus initiative to help agricultural and livestock products move from villages to cities, while launching livestreaming campaigns showcasing authentic Inner Mongolian grassland products and building a new media communication network for the region's agricultural and pastoral industries.

Inner Mongolia's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) calls for accelerating the modernization of agriculture, rural areas and pastoral areas; building a national production base for important agricultural and livestock products; improving deep processing and green and organic brands; and strengthening agricultural and pastoral brands.

As a result, companies certified under the "Meng" brand are using it as a springboard to extend their industrial chains, fill gaps in production and processing, and expand their operations. Many have rapidly developed into leading enterprises characterized by standardized production, economies of scale and technological innovation, with clear gains in brand value.

To make the "Meng" brand better known, Inner Mongolia has built an integrated online and offline promotional network. A key initiative is the "Meng" brand livestreaming studio showcasing premium products from the grasslands, which serves as a window through which Inner Mongolia can present itself to the world.

The region has established six mechanisms for advancing the brand and has worked with other regional branding programs. Today, "Meng" certification is expanding into deep-processed products and service industries. In the future, more products bearing the "Meng" mark are expected to make their way into global markets.

The shortcomings of selling agricultural products in their original form are gradually being addressed through deeper processing.

In the past, Inner Mongolia mostly followed a simple model: raise it and sell it. Cattle and sheep were transported directly after leaving the farm, milk was shipped out in bulk and bags of coarse grains were sent away with little processing. Much of the profit remained with processors elsewhere.

That value chain is now being reshaped.

In the dairy industry, development of high-value products such as milk fat and lactoferrin is accelerating. Milk is no longer simply something to drink; it can also become an ingredient for health and nutritional products.

In the meat industry, livestock are no longer processed in a one-size-fits-all manner after leaving the farm. Fresh chilled meat, hot-fresh meat and prepared foods can be produced along different lines, creating multiple value-added products from the same source.

Even coarse grains — instead of being sold simply as raw grain — are being turned into functional foods and healthy snacks, finding their way into the shopping carts of younger consumers.

To ensure that fresh flavors from the grasslands reach consumers faster, Inner Mongolia is supporting the establishment of pre-slaughter and processing centers for beef and mutton in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. By developing markets for chilled and hot-fresh meat, products once hidden away in remote pastoral areas can now reach consumers across China within the same day.

Standardized farms provide quality control at the source.

Inner Mongolia is actively developing standardized large-scale farms, with fresh-milk quality indicators reaching European Union's standards. Full-process traceability gives every piece of meat and every bottle of milk its own "identity card".

By scanning the QR code on a product package, consumers can see which farm supplied the milk, what feed the cow was given and what testing procedures the product went through.

This transparency not only helps win the trust of consumers in China, but also provides a valuable entry point into international markets.

Fiscal subsidies and financial support are also giving these brands wings, while e-commerce is connecting grassland specialties directly with consumers across the country. Inner Mongolia is vigorously advancing the "express delivery to villages" program, establishing county-level e-commerce service centers and training local livestreaming sales professionals.

Yet despite ranking first nationally in the output of many agricultural and livestock products, Inner Mongolia still faces the challenge of being large but not strong.

The fundamental solution lies in technology.

Without high-quality seeds and breeding stock, even the strongest brands would rest on shaky ground. Toward this goal, Inner Mongolia is strengthening the conservation and utilization of genetic resources, developing major seed-production counties and high-quality breeding bases, promoting self-developed single-bud sugar beet varieties and seed pelleting technology, strengthening national core breeding farms for cattle and sheep, and accelerating the application of artificial insemination technology in cattle. Innovation platforms are also helping bridge the gap between research and industry. These platforms are not ivory towers. They are engines of innovation designed to serve industry directly.

Inner Mongolia's agricultural and livestock products are now reaching the world with a new identity. This is not simply about selling more goods overseas. It represents a deeper transformation from a passageway to a hub and from products to brands.

The model of "pre-declaration+appointment-based inspection+Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) transport" has cut customs clearance times for fresh agricultural and livestock products from 24 hours to three hours. Cattle and sheep grazing on the grasslands at dawn can, in some cases, be on dining tables in Russia by noon.

What is even more important is the alignment of standards. Manzhouli Customs has adopted a tailored approach for individual enterprises, helping them align their products with international standards. As the "Meng" brand moves closer to internationally recognized certifications, the quality of the grasslands is gaining a passport to global markets.

Inner Mongolia's global distribution network is also expanding rapidly.

Five exhibition and sales centers have been established in Russia and Mongolia, covering key cities such as Moscow and Ulan-Ude. Together, they are creating an efficient supply chain linking production and processing areas, border ports and overseas distribution networks.

The two-way nature of this process is equally important. Strict export standards are being used to drive upgrades in domestic industries, while platforms linking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with international trade routes are helping build a two-way circulation system connecting the domestic market with global markets.

A "buy global, sell global" model is beginning to take shape.

From "grassland raw materials" to "international calling cards", the name "Inner Mongolia" is gradually evolving from a place of origin into a promise of quality, and from a regional label into a source of global value.

It is a quiet but profound transformation in branding.

The wind sweeping across the grasslands now passes over sensors in digitalized farms, along the steel tracks of China-Europe freight trains, through the open windows of pilot free trade zones and down the logistics channels of cross-border e-commerce, reaching more and more corners of the world.

But Inner Mongolia knows that high output does not automatically translate into strong brands, and abundant resources do not necessarily create high value.

The real transformation lies in moving from selling raw materials to selling brands, and in building the road that connects grassland pastures with dining tables around the world.

The Inner Mongolia of the future will be more than a "granary", a "meat warehouse" and a "milk tank". It is becoming a leading base for high-end, green agricultural and livestock brands.

Brand building is at the core. Deep processing is the driving force. Ecological value is the goal.

When every piece of meat and every bottle of milk carries a recognizable name, tells a compelling story and commands a premium, the gifts of the grasslands can truly travel far and earn a global reputation.

A millennium-old trading heritage is meeting a new awakening of brands. And a new grassland with its products reaching the markets all over the world is taking shape.

The "golden brands" of the grasslands are shining brighter than ever.

He Mei is a PhD student of the College of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University. Li Chunding is deputy dean of the same college.

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