Realising leather industry's potential

FE Team | Published: October 09, 2024 21:12:28

The allegation made by the entrepreneurs of the leather sector is serious. Contrary to the claim successive ministers of the past Awami League government put forward about readiness of the Savar Industrial Estate for relocation of tanneries from Hazaribagh, they complain that they were duped by lies. There was mismanagement galore so far as the infrastructure development at the estate was concerned when they moved to the leather estate in 2018. Some of the infrastructural paucity they could manage on their own but the one outstanding concerned ---and it still does---the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP). From day one, the CETP was far from operating at its full capacity. Strangely, it was still under construction when leather and leather goods manufacturers moved to the industrial estate. Then it started malfunctioning and the Chinese company responsible for its construction reportedly abandoned it without completing it.
The much hyped leather industrial estate thus proved to be a lame duck and the result was catastrophic. Massive environmental pollution from leather plants caused by dumping of solid waste and release of effluent from the leather factories was now shifted from Hazaribagh to Hemayetpur of Savar and from the Buriganga to the Dhaleswari respectively. Although the manufacturers and businesspersons of leather sector did not raise the issue of massive environmental pollution during a meeting with the finance and commerce adviser, they drew his attention to the commercial crises they have been facing since their relocation to the leather estate yet to be complete. Because of this open release of industrial waste and effluent, they are compelled to export leather at prices 70-80 per cent less than the international rate, they complain. They are paying the price for the then government's rash decision to make them move to the processing and manufacturing hub of leather and leather goods before it was equipped with the required facilities.
What, however, the manufacturers and traders of the sector did not mention is the difficulty created for obtaining Leather Working Group (LWG) certification on account of this environmental lacking. Only the LWG-certified leather factories can export shoes and leather products to international market. Reportedly, seven factories in the country have so far obtained LWG certification but only three of them produce finished leather goods. If the commercial constraints the majority of tanneries face could be overcome, the leather industry could live up to its billing of becoming the second highest foreign exchange earner.
Now that the problem is clearly identified and the entrepreneurs of the sector have brought the CETP issue to the finance and commerce adviser's notice and the latter has assured them of helping solve the problem, there are reasons to be optimistic about the industry's flourishment. If an efficient CETP can be set up at the leather estate, there will be a radical change in the environment there. But more needs to be done mainly on the part of the factories as well. They have to introduce advanced technology, particularly gears that ensure the safety of workers handling raw hides for processing. Their exposure to toxic chemicals must be limited to the minimum in order to keep them safe from the diseases caused from physical contact with those substances. The leather estate must be modern in the true sense of the term.