Tanners expect better business this Eid

---

Sacrificial animals have started arriving at Gabtoli market in the city. A seller is seen to take his cows to a suitable place for fastening in the market Friday. — FE photo

Jasim Uddin Haroon
The local tanners expect brisk business of hides and skin this Eid-ul-Azha as the demand for crust and finished leathers have been rising over the past few months after a along slump.
Most of the tanners were reluctant to purchase hides and skin during the last Eid-ul-Azha following a sharp fall in demand of the same in the international market.
Officials said that the demand for finished leather and crust grew in the country mainly because of a large demand from Chinese buyers for their domestic market.
"Our leather demand has been growing at a rate of around 30 per cent. For this we've planned to procure hide and skin as much as we can," Alhaj Rezaul Karim Ansari, chairman of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Goods and Footwear Exporters Association (BFLGFEA).
The BFLGFEA is a group of 168 tanners most of which are located at Hazaribag in the city.
But, the tanners said that the prices of hides and skin at procurement stage will not rise significantly this year as the international buyers have been requesting price cuts.
"Our buyers are pressing hard to reduce the prices of both finished and crust leather," Mr Ansari told the FE.
Officials said buyers want to procure finished leather between $1.6 and $1.5 each sft against $ 2.0 plus previously.
Around 222 million square feet leather are processed a year accounting for nearly 3.0 per cent of the world's consumption.
Tanners however said that they will hold a meeting shortly to review last year's prices of raw hide and skin of Tk 30 each square feet.
Tipu Sultan, former BFLGFEA chairman told the FE: "We are planning to fix the price around Tk 30 each square feet this year also."
Shahin Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Tanners Association said that the prices of chemical used in processing leather have risen sharply saying: "If the prices of chemical remains stable, then we will be in a state to offer better prices for the hides."
Chemical costs account for around 15 per cent of leather processing.
Mr Tipu Sultan said that local tanners are also interested to buy increased quantity of hides this year as the demand from the country's footwear industries for finished leather has been rising.
Saiful Islam, chairman of Bangladesh Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers Exporters Association said: "We earlier used to consume around 15 per cent of domestic finished leather, now we use around 35 per cent,"
He also said that earnings from footwear export have already crossed the finished leather exports in 2008-09 fiscal.
Bangladesh exported worth around US$ 170 million in 2008-09 fiscal while shoe manufacturers shipped footwear worth $ 204 million.