Tanners expect to collect over 2.5m pieces of raw hides, skin

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Naim-Ul-Karim
The country's tanners are expecting to collect more than 2.5 million pieces of raw hides and skin during this Eid festival with credit support from the commercial banks despite a dull global market, industry insiders said Sunday.
They said prices of raw hides and skin may go down this year as value of leather and leather goods in the global market dropped by nearly 50 per cent mainly due to poor demand in Europe and the USA.
President of Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA) Haroon Chowdhury: "We have a target to collect more than 2.5 million pieces of hides and skin during this Eid."
When asked, he said they have assessed the prices of raw hides and skin at Tk 30-35 per square foot primarily, which was around Tk 60-70 during the last Eid.
But, SauerIndex for global hides prices said European hide prices, which follow US market, dropped up to around 30 per cent since mid November.
"We have assessed the global market value of hides to calculate prices of the same in the local market during eid festival," Rezaul Karim Ansari, president of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods Association said, adding prices of hides and skin can go down by nearly 50 per cent compared to the previous year.
"We have no way but to be very careful in buying raw hides and skin when their prices are falling in the global market," he said, adding bank credits will help to keep prices at tolerable level.
Three state owned banks have already sanctioned Tk 2.75 billion to help the private sector hide traders purchase raw hides and skin.
Of the total amount, Tk250 million was sanctioned by Sonali Bank Ltd, Tk1.50 by billion Janata Bank Ltd and Tk1.0 billion by Agrani Bank Ltd.
Sector insiders, however, stressed the need for beefed up security measure so that raw hides and skins are not smuggled across the border.
"We are expecting to collect more than 40 per cent of our yearly collection of hides during this eid festival as a higher number of animals will be sacrificed this year due to parliamentary and upazila elections," the BTA president.
"We'll procure raw hides though we are passing through a hard time for the last few months as export earning from the sector dropped to some extent."
Bangladesh exports raw hides to Italy, Japan, Korea and China apart from supplying local leather products to Europe and USA.
Bangladesh exported leather and leather goods worth $ 284.41 million in the fiscal of 2007-08 and its target for the current fiscal is $ 304.32 million. Besides, Bangladesh also exported footwear worth $ 169.60 million, leather bags and purses worth $8.87 million in 2007-08 fiscal year.