Shipments of rawhides or wet blue are not an "answer" to the current price crisis, a leading entrepreneur has said.
More than three-fourths of the country's exports of value added finished products depend on locally available rawhides converted into finished leather.
"We will be exporting away a major comparative advantage of Bangladesh," the entrepreneur said opposing the government's recent decision to allow export of rawhides.
The entrepreneur said the government and the private entrepreneurs have invested substantial volume of money in the Savar tannery estate to ensure availability of raw materials for leather industry.
The industry insiders said tanneries have started buying and will buy rawhides and skins of sacrificial animals at a time when prices are slumping globally.
Some percentage of poor-quality rawhides that are not worth tanning anymore according to global standard will go into landfill and there is nothing to be panicked, they explained.
They said there is a need for launching an awareness campaign about the risks of involving the seasonal businesses in rawhide trading as they are ignorant of the risks.
Due to the lack of knowledge, capital and business acumen, hides are not preserved properly as seasonal traders try to save the cost of "salt", they said.
The insiders' views come in the wake of price slide in rawhides of sacrificial animals forcing seasonal traders to dump or bury animal skins across the country, mostly in Chittagong and Sylhet.
Meanwhile, the industry insiders underlined the need for speeding up the completion of central effluent treatment plant in Savar and obtaining international certification on an "urgent basis", saying both are crucial to boosting the country's exports of finished leather and footwear products.
They said global buyers would not source from Savar until the treatment plant becomes fully operational and gets international accreditation from the UK-based Leather Working Group (LWG).
The insiders also suggested creating refrigerated facilities for rawhide storage at the district level for public use to avoid damage.
They put forward a proposal for the enforcement of industry declared prices and the implementation of Qurbani loan condition for avoiding the crisis during Eid ul Azha.
They said tanneries in Bangladesh are still carrying too much stocks from the last Eid ul Azha due to lower demand worldwide.
Tanneries are still not being able to operate normally as the issues of bank and land mortgage remain unaddressed, they said.
The insiders and experts said the demand for leather has slumped globally due to many reasons including artificial leather and higher cattle deaths in the USA and Australia because of demand for beef and droughts respectively.
They said brands and consumers of finished products such as shoes and bags switch over to PU (poly urethane) and textiles when leather prices soared. But despite fall in leather prices manufacturers never returned to the use of old raw material.
While China is still biggest buyer of rawhides in the in the world, tanneries are folding everyday there due to the stringent environmental laws, clampdown on factories as well as shortage of labour, the entrepreneur said.
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