Seasonal rawhide traders are pointing fingers to tanner owners and wholesalers after hide price of slaughtered cattle hit a three-decade low this Eid-ul-Azha.
In response, the businessmen are claiming, the price drop is caused because of China-United States trade war.
They also claimed that local and foreign buyers lost interest due to transferring the tanneries from Hazaribag to incomplete Tannery Industrial Estate at Savar.
Senior Vice Chairman of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters’ Association (BFLLFEA) and Managing Director of Anwar Tannery Diljahan Bhuiyan told Bangla Tribune, “The leather market in our country collapsed after the trade war between China and United States started. That’s the reason the rawhide price of sacrificed animals dropped.”
Leather business owners won’t be able to increase the price at will, he added.
Bangladesh Tanners Association General Secretary Sakhawat Ullah made similar comments.
He told Bangla Tribune, “Our main market is China, but no export was made in the last three months to the country. They started to stop taking leather from us after a trade war started between them and United States.”
“China is neither taking the previous orders, nor issuing any new ones,” he adds.
Diljahan Bhuiyan, however, pointed out some other reasons behind the hide price fall.
He said, “Foreign buyers have lost interest after the tanneries were transferred to the Tannery Industrial Estate of Savar, because that area is totally muddy. Third reason is – a Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) is yet to be ready. Fourth, businessmen in the tanner trade are still in financial crisis.”
Tanner owners are saying, almost 225 factories have been shut down because of transferring them to Savar.
Although some among them resumed activities later, but more than 150 factories, small and big are still closed. The same goes for Chattogram where 21 factories among 22 had to shut their operation.
The remaining one that is operational can process less than 20% of rawhides that are collected in that region. Besides waste dumping area is not yet finalised.
Among the 155 tanneries in Savar Tannery Industrial Estate, 115 are capable of production.
The second biggest sector to contribute in the country’s export fell short of their export target in 2017-18 fiscal year.