Tannery owners are irate at the government for ordering the export of rawhide. After an emergency meeting of the tannery owners, they said this decision will jeopardise the tannery industry in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Tanners’ Association President Shaheen Ahmed said the government's decision to export rawhide will affect the local tannery industry.
Tanners will start to buy rawhide from Aug 20, he added.
He made these remarks at a media call to address the rawhide situation in the country.

“They will get the government-fixed prices when they sell to us,” the tanner added.

Earlier on Tuesday (Aug 13), the government took a decision to export rawhide and gave orders to relevant people in authority to preserve rawhide.

General secretary of Bangladesh Tanners Association, Sakhawat Ullah, told Bangla Tribune: “This decision is suicidal because our business is based on hides bought during Eid ul Azha. We have not started the process to preserve hides and will start to buy hides after 8 to 10 days.”

“We will buy hide at the rate fixed by the government,” he observed.

Animal hides sold at the lowest rate this year in the last 31 years, seasonal traders paid less than Tk 200 for a Tk 80000 cow while that of a cow worth Tk one hundred thousand sold for Tk 300.

Many of those who have sacrificed animals are burying the leather out of indignation for not getting the right price.

Tanners Association has said that the price of rawhide fell due to an artificial crisis created by middlemen.

Hides sold at Tk 400 – Tk 500 near Science Laboratory and the same picture was seen in Posta, Hazaribagh and other areas.

Businessmen outside Dhaka have said that they are forced to sell hides at a lower rate. This year, cowhide per square feet is between Tk 45 and Tk 50 in Dhaka while outside it’s between Tk 35 and Tk 40; goatskin is between Tk 18 and Tk 20 while for lamb, between Tk 13 and Tk 15. 

President of Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchant Association, Delwar Hossain, said: “When we had money, we bought hides through competition and that raised the price of the hides but this year, we do not have cash; tanner owners owe us more than Tk. 3.5 billion.”

Some seasonal traders have bought hides after borrowing money from relatives.

In addition, several rumours were spread beforehand like ‘selling will be hard if hide if bought at high rates’ and ‘hide may rot’ etc.