Staff Reporter :
The country’s leather and leather goods exporters are being deprived of fair prices of their products due to lack of compliance, experts said.
Proposing for forming a Leather Sector Development Authority (LSDA) to ensure development and smooth supervision, they said it is possible to earn around $10 billion to $12 billion from this sector by 2030.
They made the observations at a webinar titled “An Assessment of the Impact of COVID-19 on Tanneries” organized jointly by the Asia Foundation (TAF), Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) and Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) on Tuesday.
Terming the leather sector as a very potential sector, Industries Ministry Secretary Zakia Sultana said that the country could earn around $10 billion to $12 billion per year from the leather and leather goods sector if it is nurtured and monitored properly.
“But, there are many challenges in this sector of which the major one is solid waste management. Companies from EU, Italy, and India are coming to us, but we’re not getting suitable offers from them,” she said.
“Ensuring just price of leather is also a challenge,” she said, adding, “The price of raw hides is usually fixed during the Eidul Azha, but, the marginal businessmen don’t get the desired price.”
Noting that the Industries Ministry is in conversation with the RAJUK for bringing Hazaribagh out from the ‘red zone’, Zakia said that there is a scope for producing byproduct in Hazaribagh which will lead to the creation of employment opportunities and export earnings. “But, there is a need for some policy changes in this regard.”
Managing Director of Apex Footwear Syed Nasim Manzur said that the global supply chain of the leather goods has almost collapsed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“Although there was a scope for increasing the share in the global market under the present circumstances, but it is not being possible due to noncompliance in this sector despite having own raw materials,” he said.
Nasim said since independence, the export of raw hides has declined by 79 percent while the export of finished leather has increased by 80 percent which indicates that the local entrepreneurs are not being able to use their own raw hides mostly because of the non-implementation of the policies.
Urging the government to withdraw the bar of ‘red zone’ from Hazaribagh, he said that the Ministry of Industries alone could not move forward the leather sector, rather integrated effort is needed in participation of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Industries Ministry Additional Secretary Kazi Sakhawat Hossain, Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) Vice Chairman Mizanur Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Labour Foundation AKM Ashraf Uddin, Country Representative of the Asia Foundation Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj, RAPID’s Executive Director Dr Abu Eusuf, ERF President Sharmeen Rinvy and it General Secretary SM Rashidul Islam, among others, spoke.
