Staff Reporter :
Rawhide traders at the union and upazila levels across the country have preserved their purchased rawhide of sacrificial animals so that they could get fair prices of the stuff from the tanners.
The tanners will start buying of rawhides at the prices set by the government from Saturday.
Prices of rawhides witnessed an unprecedented fall this Eid-ul-Azha allegedly due to an unholy nexus of leather sector businessmen. Even some people who sacrificed animals and seasonal traders buried rawhides protesting throwaway prices from buyers. Media reported that seasonal and small-scale traders threw away of more than one lakh pieces of cowhides on the road of Chattogram city as wholesale traders refused to buy the items even at Tk 50-10 per piece.
The drastic price fall of rawhide prompted the government to announce a decision to allow export of the items.
“Hide traders from outside Dhaka will bring their rawhides from Saturday. They will sell it to tanners at the prices set by the government,” a hide merchant at Posta in Dhaka told The New Nation on Thursday.
Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) earlier in a meeting with the Commerce Ministry agreed to buy rawhides of animals sacrificed on the Eid-ul-Azha at government fixed rates.
“We will start buying rawhides from traders outside Dhaka from Saturday considering the ongoing market situation,” BTA President Md. Shaheen Ahamed told The New Nation.
He said the traders have been urged to follow the appropriate process to preserve the rawhide to get fair price.
Md. Shaheen Ahamed, however, urged the government to scrap its decision to export raw hides considering interest of the domestic leather industry.
“The government will only consider the plea of tanners if the rawhide prices recover from the current nosedive situation,” a high commerce ministry official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He said a recovery in rawhide prices may lead the government to scrap its previous decision.
