Last week, the Agricultural Stock Exchange (ASE) organized 36.4 billion MNT in trades, and highlighted that 61 tons of cashmere were sold for 36.2 billion MNT. The prices for raw brown cashmere stood at 57,633 MNT per kg, while prices for light cashmere equaled 59,823 MNT per kg as of last week. The figure was slightly higher than results from the previous week. The ASE underlined that the trading volume of cashmere was 4.2 times higher than the previous month, which the ASE believes was related to an increase in cashmere supply. They noted that the supply is expected to grow until the middle of May. The ASE said that this year cashmere has fewer components than usual due to dzud conditions and heavy snowfall, and underlined that it is being evaluated primarily on quality. Executive Director of the ASE J.Erdenebat emphasized that the amount of pure cashmere volume sourced from one kg of wool has improved. “Prices for cashmere are slightly lower compared to last year. Prices for combed cashmere exported in the first quarter of 2016 equaled approximately 71.7 USD per kg. This is a result down by 26 percent in comparison to the same period in 2015. However, cashmere export prices can increase, as the quality of Mongolian cashmere has improved,” underlined J.Erdenebat.