Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Seasonal rawhide business in this year’s Eid-ul-Azha has faced a major hit from a price crash owing to market manipulation allegedly by tanners’ syndicate.
As a result, the seasonal and small traders were deprived of fair prices of rawhides that they procured during the three Eid days, insiders said, blaming the syndicate for the losses.
Iqbal Hossain, a seasonal trader, told The New Nation yesterday that he procured 200 pieces of cowhide at Tk 1200-Tk 1300 from field level. But he was forced to sell them at Tk 900 per piece
to an agent of tanners in Dhaka resulting in huge losses.
“A syndicate was dictating prices of the rawhides of sacrificial animals and offering a lower price (the fixed one) that the tanners announced before the Eid,” he added.
Tanners earlier fixed the price of raw cowhide at Tk 50 per square foot in the capital and at Tk 40 elsewhere the country, while the price of goatskin at Tk 20 per square foot in the capital and at Tk 15 rest of the country.
“But the rawhide traders across the country could not sell their collection at the same price that was fixed earlier,” Monir Hossain, a seasonal trader from capital’s Lalbagh area, told The New Nation yesterday.
“We were deprived of getting fair prices of rawhide of sacrificial animals as the middlemen who worked for tanners offered lower prices,” he said, alleging that the tannery industry owners formed an ‘unholy nexus’ and pushed down the rawhide prices victimizing the seasonal traders.
“Seasonal traders procure rawhides from people during Eid days without going through the current market situation. If any trader incurs losses due to purchase of rawhides of sacrificial animals at higher prices, we will not be liable for it,” Shaheen Ahmed, Chairman of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) told The New Nation on Thursday.
Brushing aside the allegation of market manipulation, he said, the depressed price is because of buildup inventory at tanneries, liquidity crunch and price fall of leather and leather goods in the global market.
Shaheen Ahmed, however, said that the supply of rawhide is almost satisfactory and tanners are hoping to procure over ten million pieces of rawhide this time.
Tanners countrywide process over 220 million square feet of leather every year and of which over 40 per cent is collected during Eid-ul-Azha.
“We have procured about 10 per cent of rawhides. The supply of the rawhides is yet to get momentum from other parts of the country due to lower rate,” Delwar Hossain, Chairman of Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) told The New Nation yesterday.
He said many seasonal rawhide traders may suffer losses this year as they bought the skins of sacrificial animals at prices higher than the rates fixed by the tanners ahead of the Eid.
When asked, Delwar Hossain said some of the seasonal traders with a stockpile of the hides waited for better bargain while some others were involved in smuggling to neighboring India for higher profit.
He also apprehends that the collection of rawhides may fall short of the target this time due to various reasons.
Seasonal rawhide business in this year’s Eid-ul-Azha has faced a major hit from a price crash owing to market manipulation allegedly by tanners’ syndicate.
As a result, the seasonal and small traders were deprived of fair prices of rawhides that they procured during the three Eid days, insiders said, blaming the syndicate for the losses.
Iqbal Hossain, a seasonal trader, told The New Nation yesterday that he procured 200 pieces of cowhide at Tk 1200-Tk 1300 from field level. But he was forced to sell them at Tk 900 per piece
to an agent of tanners in Dhaka resulting in huge losses.
“A syndicate was dictating prices of the rawhides of sacrificial animals and offering a lower price (the fixed one) that the tanners announced before the Eid,” he added.
Tanners earlier fixed the price of raw cowhide at Tk 50 per square foot in the capital and at Tk 40 elsewhere the country, while the price of goatskin at Tk 20 per square foot in the capital and at Tk 15 rest of the country.
“But the rawhide traders across the country could not sell their collection at the same price that was fixed earlier,” Monir Hossain, a seasonal trader from capital’s Lalbagh area, told The New Nation yesterday.
“We were deprived of getting fair prices of rawhide of sacrificial animals as the middlemen who worked for tanners offered lower prices,” he said, alleging that the tannery industry owners formed an ‘unholy nexus’ and pushed down the rawhide prices victimizing the seasonal traders.
“Seasonal traders procure rawhides from people during Eid days without going through the current market situation. If any trader incurs losses due to purchase of rawhides of sacrificial animals at higher prices, we will not be liable for it,” Shaheen Ahmed, Chairman of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) told The New Nation on Thursday.
Brushing aside the allegation of market manipulation, he said, the depressed price is because of buildup inventory at tanneries, liquidity crunch and price fall of leather and leather goods in the global market.
Shaheen Ahmed, however, said that the supply of rawhide is almost satisfactory and tanners are hoping to procure over ten million pieces of rawhide this time.
Tanners countrywide process over 220 million square feet of leather every year and of which over 40 per cent is collected during Eid-ul-Azha.
“We have procured about 10 per cent of rawhides. The supply of the rawhides is yet to get momentum from other parts of the country due to lower rate,” Delwar Hossain, Chairman of Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) told The New Nation yesterday.
He said many seasonal rawhide traders may suffer losses this year as they bought the skins of sacrificial animals at prices higher than the rates fixed by the tanners ahead of the Eid.
When asked, Delwar Hossain said some of the seasonal traders with a stockpile of the hides waited for better bargain while some others were involved in smuggling to neighboring India for higher profit.
He also apprehends that the collection of rawhides may fall short of the target this time due to various reasons.
