Traders prepare to collect cattle bone during Eid

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Ismail Hossain Cattle bone traders in the country are getting prepared to collect bones of sacrificial animals during Eid-ul-Azha. Around half the annual requirement of bones is usually available during Eid-ul-Azha every year and for this bone crushing factories remain busy collecting bones during the days of the festival. Industry insiders said there are some 100 bone crushing factories in the country. Director General of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute Dr. Khan Shahidul Huque on Friday said every year 15-20 per cent of cattle are slaughtered out of total 25 million cattleheads in the country. He said some 4.0-5.0 million cattleheads are slaughtered during Eid-ul-Azha when around 0.1 million tonnes of bones are available. But not all can be collected. "Another source of bone is dead animals. Taking all those into accounts, country's total bone production is around 1.1 million per year." He said. He said, considering bone meal's (crushed bone) export prospect, government has been subsidizing 15 per cent cash incentives on its export since 2002. Dr. Khan said cattle bones are used, chiefly, for manufacturing capsule cells, chicken food, fish food, fertilizers, some herbal medicine. Meanwhile, pharmaceuticals industry sources said the country has an annual demand for 700 million capsule cells. Opsonin Pharmaceuticals produce 80 percent of the total demand of capsule cells. But the demand has been growing day by day. Md Novel, owner of HnB Trading of Chittagong who exports bones, told the FE that retail traders buy bones at Taka 8 per kg from slaughter houses and sells at Taka 10 per kg. He said every year he collects around 500 tonnes of cattle bones during Eid-ul-Azha. "It becomes 100 tonnes to 200 tonnes during rest of the year," he said. "But there is a growing domestic demand for animal bone. Opsonin Global is the country's lone company that produces capsule cells from bones, he added. Local medicine companies and herbal medicine makers use this cells, Dr Khan said informing that capsule cells are also exported to different countries. "About 0.5-0.6 million cells are exported every month," he said. Capsule cells are exported to 17 countries including Pakistan, America, Ukraine, South Africa, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Japan, India and Saudi Arabia, he said.