Leather traders in Dhaka today offered a maximum price of Tk 350 for the skin of a big sized cow, which was sold at Tk 5,000 even 15 years ago. Apart from that they offered now price for small sized raw hide of cow and goat, sources said.
It was seen that a group of people on behalf of Old Dhaks’s rawhide hoarder collected the hides at those rate as like it had been traded during last couple of years gathered across the country.
As like previous years many people with sacrificial mood donated their rawhide to different hide collectors as no Madrasha representatives collected this year.
At one time most of the madrasas in Bangladesh used to make a huge revenue by trading in sacrificial leather and the people of the neighborhood also contributed to the madrasas by giving the madrasas leather at a low price. Now those Madrasas have no interest in this business.It was mystery that prices of finished goods leather are soaring across the country when the raw-materials of the same are trading at low price.
Leather shoes, bags and other fancy goods made in a Bangladeshi factory have been showcasing all the famous modeling shows held at Berlin or Paris. But rawhide of the same products are now rolling in the streets without any price.
What Happened behind this: To ensure the supply of raw hides at low prices in the country, a few tanneries had formed alliances among them so that they can buy raw hides at the prices fixed by the government. But even after such a long period, the tanners were not getting the leather at the expected lower price. The syndicate later placed pressure on government for which the government banned the export of raw leather abroad in the name of protecting the domestic industry. This ban worked like a tonic. For the past four years, people have not been able to sell sacrificial skins and have thrown them on the ground. The raw leather market of Bangladesh was lost and the farmers lost their fair price. The government has set a price of Tk 26 to Tk 32 per square foot of salted cow skin outside Dhaka for tannery owners. Besides, the price of Khasi leather has been fixed at Tk 13 to 15 and goat leather at Tk 10 to 12 across the country. During the July-April of the 2018-19 financial year, Bangladesh earned US$ 636.1 million from the leather sector. Although the target at the time was US$ 919.6 million. As a result, the revenue has decreased by about 9 percent more than the target and 6.69 percent more than the same period of the previous financial year.
