Tanners agree to raise price of raw hides

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FE Report
After a marathon meeting Tuesday, tanners agreed to pay Tk 5-10 extra for buying raw hides against its price fixed at Tk 55-60 per square foot for cows for Dhaka and Tk 45-50 for outside Dhaka.
But the revised rate will not convince the traders who have rejected it, saying that they would not accept the price as it will cost them millions of taka.
After days of row over price of such animal hides, the tanners sat in a meeting at the headquarters of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) where tanners in Dhaka reached the agreement after a three-hour-long discussion.
"We've decided to purchase this vital exportable product by paying Tk 5 to Tk 10 extra over the price, which was fixed at the middle of the month," BTA chairman Shaheen Ahmed told the FE after emerging from the meeting.
He said they will incur huge loss if they pay traders as per their demand. "Our hands were heavily tied up as the price was set in line with the rate fixed by our global buyers before the festival," he said.
He said global buyers will not increase their rate due to huge supply of raw hides in the local market after the second biggest religious festival of the Muslims. "So we're undone to increase further," he added.
He informed that they will sit again tomorrow (Wednesday) with the traders to inform them about the new rate.
Seeking anonymity, a senior leader of a traders' group said the tanners asked them for holding talks tomorrow. "We'll not accept anything below Tk 80 for per square foot," he said, adding that they will formally disclose their views over the price after the tomorrow's meeting.
The problem arose last Thursday after traders collected hides by paying Tk 20-30 extra over the price fixed by three associations.
Local tanners procured more than 2.9 million pieces of cow hides and 4.5 million pieces of goat skin during Eid-ul-Azha last year. On this occasion of Eid-ul-Azha tanners get around 50 per cent raw hides of their total annual collection