The rawhides of sacrificial animals are now 'open' for trading as tanners and wholesalers have reached a consensus over the issue.
"This [trading] is now open," Delwar Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Hide & Skin Merchants' Association told reporters after a tripartite meeting.
The ministry of commerce organised the meeting at its conference room at the secretariat on Sunday, convened hurriedly after the Eid hide market tailspinned into chaos.
Industries minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun attended the meeting as the chief guest as the commerce minister is on an overseas tour.
Salman F Rahman, Prime Minister's adviser on private industry and investment and senior commerce secretary Mofizul Islam were at the meeting.
Representatives of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), tanners, leather merchants, finished leather producing industries and merchants from different districts were also present at the meeting.
Mr Humayun said that there was a 'vicious circle' who wanted to destabilise the leather market.
He said there will be another meeting between the rawhide traders and tanners to resolve the issue of arrears.
The FBCCI will organise the meeting on August 22.
"We don't care it [conspiracy], we're careful about it," the minister said.
He, however, said the government did not scrap the decision on export of leather.
"This is not easy to make shipment, we will take such a decision considering on the situation," Mr Humayun told reporters.
He said that there was no "significant" damage due to the dumping of the rawhides underground.
"We estimate that around 10,000 pieces were damaged and mostly in Chattogram and Sylhet," he said.
Replying a question on the dumping of 3.0 million pieces of rawhide, the industries minister said that "this might be done by BNP to embarrass the government as they have failed to organise any movement."
Salman F Rahman said that most of the rawhide was damaged due to "unfavourable weather."
While delivering the inaugural speech, the commerce secretary said the dumping of the rawhides underground was unexpected as those are valuable for the country.
"Had people preserved the rawhides by using salt that would have been good for both sellers and buyers of the same," the senior secretary said.
He also said like previous years, the authorities organised the meeting with all stakeholders and fixed the prices.
He said currently the prices of leather range from US$ 1.5 to $2.0 a square foot in the international market.
Meanwhile, a writ petition was filed on Sunday with the High Court seeking a judicial inquiry into why prices of rawhides and skins fell drastically.
The writ also sought HC directive to take punitive action against those responsible for the price falloff.
Supreme Court lawyer Mohiuddin Md Hanif moved it after filing the petition.
But two HC benches, one comprising Justice F R M Nazmul Ahasan and Justice K M Kamrul Kader and another Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Badruzzaman, declined to hear the petition.
The petitioner said he moves the petition to another court today (Monday).
In the petition, the lawyer sought a rule on as to why the respondents failed to prevent "unprecedented and drastic" decline in rawhides and skins prices.
The lawyer also wants the formation of a probe committee and punitive actions against the persons, business institutions and associations responsible for this drastic price fall.
Commerce and industries secretaries, chairman of the Bangladesh Tanners Association and president of the Bangladesh Hide & Skin Merchants Association are respondents to the writ petition.
Noting leather and leather good is the second-largest export item of Bangladesh, the petition said half the demand of raw materials for making leather and leather goods are collected during the season of sacrificial animals.
But this year's target has not been met. Rather seasonal and small traders along with orphanages and religious seminaries suffered owing to the sizeable decline in prices of rawhides and skins as the respondents have failed to ensure the fair price or even the price fixed by the government, he added.
Taking the advantage of volatility in the market, the petition alleged that unscrupulous hide traders in connivance with brokers might smuggle out the raw hides in neighbouring countries.
There is no alternative to issuing a guideline for collecting rawhides from the seasonal, small traders and sellers in a more effective, fair and transparent way so that the orphans, the poor and the needy get proper benefits, said the petition.
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