Traders on Saturday set the minimum price of rawhide of the sacrificial animals in the face of a threat from the commerce ministry of lifting the ban on export of the item.
Leather sector leaders at a meeting at the Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association’s office set separate rates for rawhide in Dhaka and adjoining areas and that in other areas.
As per the decision, tanners will buy rawhide of cow at Tk 85-Tk 90 a square feet in Dhaka and adjoining areas and at Tk 75-Tk 85 a square feet in other areas of the country.
‘We have set the price of rawhide considering the international market price,’ the BFLLGFEA president Belal Hossain told New Age.
He said the prices would be effective only for salted skin as tanners would not buy any unsalted rawhide.
Rawhide traders have to determine what prices they will give to collect rawhide from the rural areas, Belal said.
At the meeting, the traders also set the price of high-quality goat skin at Tk 50-Tk 55 a square feet and low-quality one at Tk 45-Tk 40 a square feet.
In the last few years, rawhide traders made excessive profit and people were deprived of fair price of the item in absence of a minimum price.
The commerce ministry on October 8 asked the traders for setting a reasonable price of rawhide to be collected during coming Eid-ul-Azha to ensure a fair price for people.
The ministry threatened that if the traders did not set the reasonable price of rawhide, the government would allow export of the item.
Following the direction of the ministry, the traders set the rawhide prices, but it would not help people as the traders set the prices of salted hide, said a high official of the commerce ministry.
‘But it is positive that the traders have agreed to set minimum prices of rawhide of sacrificial animals to be collected during coming Eid-ul-Azha as people were deprived of the fair price of the item in the last two years,’ he said.
The middlemen would be benefited more by the price setting as individuals do not salt rawhide for preservation, official said.
-With New Age input
