The wholesale buyers of hides do not have enough cash this year.
President of Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association, Delwar Hossain has echoed the grim picture saying: “We do not have enough cash and therefore, won’t be able to buy leather; more than 80 per cent of tannery owners could not even clear payment for last year’s hide.”
One or two tanneries have made full payments for last year’s purchase, he observed.
He fears that due to lack of cash, many hides won’t be sold and therefore, will rot in the end.
Seasonal traders usually sell salt less blood-soaked hide to whole-sellers who salt the skins and then take them to the hoarders.
Until going to the tanneries, the hide remains with the hoarders who keep Tk 35 profit for each piece and then take them to the tanneries.
Tannery owners then process the leather and make products that are exported abroad. During Eid-ul-Azha, hundreds and thousands of traders buy hide and after properly salting them, they go to the tanneries.
It’s believed that every year, hide traders face risk in their purchase.
Delwar Hossain says every year seasonal hide traders face precarious situations.
This happens because there is no competition in the raw leather market, he adds.