Tanners, traders clueless
Rawhide prices hit a record high of Tk 125 per square feet Friday in the wholesale market at Posta in the city and in other parts of the country.
While visiting the market at Posta in Old Dhaka, it was seen that the salted cowhide was being sold at Tk 120-125 per square feet against Tk 85-95 fixed by the tanners before the last Eid-ul Azha.
Goatskin was being sold at Tk 60-65 against the fixed prices of Tk 50-55 while the buffalo skin was being sold at Tk 50-55 against the fixed prices of Tk 40-45.
The local market is heated up on multilayer buying by manufacturers, exporters, wholesalers and Indian traders and higher international prices, Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) President Ali Hossain told The Financial Express.
The tanners and traders were all totally confused about why the rawhide prices reached the highest level in the country’s 42 years’ history.
“We are totally baffled as we could not really identify the reason behind the high prices,” said Shaheen Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Tanners Association.
Earlier before the Eid, Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather goods and Footwear Exporters’ Association, Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) and Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) jointly announced their price list.
As per the list, the prices for salted cowhide were fixed at Tk 85-95 per square feet in Dhaka and Tk 75-80 elsewhere while the prices of goatskin were fixed at Tk 50-55 and buffalo skin Tk 40-45.
Sources said the number of animals sacrificed was 15 per cent higher than that of the last year. Rawhide smuggling into neighbouring India was not that much as happens each year. Then why were the rawhide prices so high?
When asked, many traders expressed suspicion that Indian traders might be buying the pieces of rawhide and hoarding them before smuggling them back into their country later.
“We think Indian traders are aggressively buying rawhide from the local market. Maybe, they are hoarding the material inside the country,” Ali Hossain said.
He also blamed multilayer buying for the prices. Each year tanners purchase rawhide from the traders at Posta. “But this year tanners, manufacturers, exporters and wholesalers are buying it separately from the market,” he added.
The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) took special measures to check smuggling in rawhide into India from the Eid day.
“The officers concerned have been asked to take extra measures to stop rawhide smuggling,” BGB Director General Major General Aziz Ahmed told the FE over phone. He said there would be extra vigilance on it in the frontier areas.
However, tanners expressed dismay as the heightening political tensions would disrupt transportation of rawhide from the countryside to Dhaka.
“We are really worried that rawhide in the remote areas would get damaged as they salted the rawhide for a short period. If they cannot sell it, all parties in the chain would incur losses,” said a former president of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather goods and Footwear Exporters’ Association.
According to the livestock ministry, the country has nearly 47.5 million domestic animals, including 23 million cattle, 1.2 million buffaloes, 20 million goats and three million sheep.
Most of the sacrificial animals are brought from neighbouring India during the Eid-ul Azha every year.
The leather and leather goods industry earned over Tk 0.5 billion from exports in the fiscal year 2012-13, according to the Export Promotion Bureau.
-With The Financial Express input
