Labourers working at a rawhide storehouse in Natore district — FE Photo RAJSHAHI, Aug 20: Though the government has fixed the price of per square foot rawhide, most of the wholesalers and hoarders in Natore hide market were purchasing those through an average price flouting the government order.
It is alleged, they were purchasing goat hide per piece at Tk 10 to Tk 50 and cowhide at Tk 200 to Tk 500 per piece according to size.
However, the seasonal hide traders and middlemen were blaming the wholesale traders and hide traders' syndicate for such low price of rawhide.
Though the seasonal hide traders and middlemen were being forced to sell their stock of rawhide at a throwaway price, far lower than the price fixed by the government, leaders of Hide Traders' Group in Natore claimed, they were purchasing rawhide at a price fixed by the tannery owners in Dhaka.
Natore Hide Traders Group, however, said negligence of tannery owners, a huge amount of outstanding dues from tannery owners and stoppage of export of wet-blue hide were the cause of devastation in the leather industry throughout the country including at Natore.
They emphatically said due to fund crunch, there was an abnormal fall in the price of rawhide which caused a huge loss to seasonal hide traders.
Rejecting the claim of purchasing raw, salt processed hide on an average, piece based price, they said at present, the hide storehouse owners in Natore were purchasing hide at the government fixed price but they demanded export of wet-blue hide to rejuvenate the hide industry in the country.
Baidynath Hide Market in Natore is thought to be the largest raw-hide market in the country where hundreds of raw-hide traders, middlemen and seasonal hide traders thronged to sell their stock of hides from Northern and the Southern part of the country.
After visiting the market, it was seen rawhide traders were carrying their hide to Natore to sell but no tannery owner or their representative has so far visited Natore to purchase hide. Now, all the local hide traders have stockpiled their hide after processing those with salt. Local hide traders informed they were purchasing cowhide at Taka 40 to 50 per square foot and goat hide at Tk 20 to Tk 25 per sqaure foot.
They further informed, tannery owners usually start purchasing hide from Natore from second week after the Eid.
However, large hide traders in Natore informed, most of the storehouse owners here used to purchase hide mainly on commission.
They used to get a percentage of commission from the hide they used to purchase from the tanners. That is why the issue of profit or loss depends on those seasonal traders or middlemen who were carrying hide at the storehouses from outside and those who are purchasing hide from them.
Lutfar Rahman Laltu, vice president of Natore District Hide Traders' Group, said usually the tannery owners repaid their debts to local hide traders before the Eid that is why the local traders do not face any cash shortage. But this year, no tannery owners except five to six cleared their dues before the Eid.
As a result, the hide market plummeted due to lack of fund. Many storehouse owners and hide traders failed to purchase rawhide this year. As a result, there was damage of rawhide in many places of the country. Moreover, in previous years, the government used to disburse soft loan to the tannery owners but this year they did not get such loan.
On the other hand, while shifting their industry from Hajaribag to Hemayetpur, many tannery owners were facing fund shortages. As a result, both seasonal traders and middlemen did not get a fair price of rawhide this year. For the same reason, the income of various orphanages and religious institutions was also squeezed.
Hide trader Monjurul Alam Hiru informed, once wet-blue leather was exported from our country. Then it was a 'golden age' for the leather industry of the country. But, during the 90s, the government stopped exporting wet-blue leather and from then this vast hide market of the country was totally gripped by the tannery owners of the country.
As a result, there was fall and chaos in hide market every year and local hide traders have no choice but to purchase hide as the price fixed by the tanners.
After visiting hide markets two days after the Eid, it was noticed every local hide traders have incurred loss by purchasing hide.
The storehouse owners were not purchasing hide at the price fixed by the government. The hide which they purchased at Tk 800 was sold at Tk 400. At the storehouse of Natore, a piece of cow hide is being sold at Tk 300 to Tk 400 and a goat hide at Tk 20 to Tk 30.
Seasonal hide traders complained they used to deal in rawhide for a long time but never had they seen such a fall in the price of rawhide.
It is learnt, hide traders from more than 32 districts purchase rawhide at the price fixed by the government and sell those to the 'Arotdars' of Natore. But, this year they were in an awkward position because of not getting the proper price of hide.
According to sources, local and seasonal traders had sold some 1.1m pieces of rawhide from 32 districts to some 150 Arots in Natore last year. But, due to the debacle in hide price, the Arotdars of Natore were worried whether they would be able to purchase a half the total purchase of last year.
Shariful Islam, President of Natore District Hide Traders' Group informed, the Arotdars and Tannery owners used to purchase hide by measuring it as square foot. At present the goat hide was being purchased at Tk 15 to Tk 18 per square foot and cowhide at Tk 45 to Tk 48 per square foot.
Lufar Rahman, Vice President of HTG informed, a total of 30 per cent to 35 per cent of the total hide of the country are procured, processed and sold from Natore market. The seasonal hide traders have purchased rawhide at an exorbitant price and were facing loss while they were failing to sell those at Natore.
Our Correspondent from Bogura writes: Due to low market price, the rawhide traders of the district are allegedly planning to smuggle rawhide to neighbouring India.
Some 15 traders of rawhide have yet not got their dues over Tk 350 million from the tannery owners in Dhaka. They said they are worried over the situation.
Sources said rawhide price is high in India market. Some traders want to send those to India for high profit.
According to sources of district rawhide traders association, some 387 members of this association in Sherpur, Dupachanchia and Sadar upazilas are still engaged with their ancestral profession. Many traders have already changed their profession to earn their living.
Small trader Zahurul Islam said he collected about 300 pieces of cow hide and sold those to a big buyer recently. "I didn't get a single penny from him", he added.
It is learnt that around 60,000 pieces of rawhide have been collected in the district this Eid.
Cow skin was sold at Tk 500 to Tk 550 per piece in the district.
Meanwhile, according to the district livestock department, about 0.32 million animals were slaughtered in the Eid-ul-Azha.
District leather business committee general manager Abdul Matin Sarker said it is a challenge to collect Tk 350 million from the tannery owners in Dhaka.
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