Despite fixing of rates, rawhides and skin of sacrificial animals are being traded at high prices in different city markets and its adjoining areas as the market is reigned mostly by seasonal traders.
Many of the tanners and traders complained that they could not procure their expected quantity of rawhides from the market mainly due to high prices and non-availability of the item. They blamed the seasonal traders, who embarked upon a quick money-making business during the Eid, for stockpiling the rawhides.
Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) General Secretary Tipu Sultan told The Financial Express that they had already procured about 0.3 million pieces of rawhide from the Dhaka city market. He blamed the seasonal traders and middlemen for the high prices and non-availability of rawhides as many of them directly sold the hides to the tanners.
Most of the traders at Posta, the main wholesale rawhide market in the capital, told this correspondent that they bought rawhides of the sacrificial animals from the seasonal traders at much higher prices than the fixed rates. Many of them even had to pay Tk 120 per square feet as against the fixed rate of Tk 75-80.
Hide traders at a press conference on Friday announced that they would purchase salted cow hides at Tk 70-75 per square feet in Dhaka and at Tk 60-65 outside the capital as per the rates fixed by the government. Salted goat skin would be bought at Tk 30-35 per square feet, they added. Unlike previous year when the government had set the prices, this time three trade bodies -- Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA), Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchant Association and Bangladesh Finished Leather and Footwear Exporters Association (BFLFEA) -- fixed the purchase rates.
According to sources, the rawhides are being traded at Tk 100-120 per square feet against their fixed rate of Tk 70-75 collected from the capital and adjacent areas. Many of the traders at Posta and tanners at Hazaribagh said that they failed to procure their expected quantity from the market due to high prices.
"We failed to procure the desired quantity which we sell throughout the year," said an employee of Hazi Kalimuddin Arat at Posta. Like Kalimuddin, employees at Asuda Company and Anwar Wahed Arat, echoed the similar disappointment.
During a visit, it was seen that the trading had not yet started in full swing in Posta and Hazaribagh areas, although usually the areas remain busy during the Eid-ul-Azha and the next two days after Eid with trading in rawhides. But this time, a very few traders were seen buying rawhides from different parts of Dhaka city and sending those to Posta.
"Last year you could not pass through the road, but this year you find the road clear. There is no truck or van or pushcart with hides and skin," said a frustrated hide merchant.
Workers and employees of tanneries, mostly located at Hazaribagh, also complained of high prices and non-availability of rawhides. None, however, complained about the prices of goat, buffalo and lamb hides and skin.
According to sources, a standard size raw leather is being traded at Tk 2000-2500 while the prices of small size cowhide is Tk 1300-1800, almost at the same level of last year's prices.
The prices were supposed to be lower as the number of sacrificial animals was higher than that of the last year. But the seasonal traders who have lack of knowledge about the relevant trade, put the market in disarray," said Md. Mosharraf Hossain, general secretary of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA).
Usually, traders at Posta collect rawhides and skin of sacrificial animals from across the country through middlemen and supply those to tanneries throughout the year. Middlemen purchase the rawhides and send them to warehouses at Posta. There are 250 warehouses at Posta, which can accommodate 300,000 pieces of rawhide. The warehouses at Aminbazar in Savar have room for another 100,000 rawhides.
But during the last few years, some seasonal traders, blessed by political leaders, got involved in the business during the Eid-ul-Azha and very often controlled the market.
This year, small traders and middlemen started purchasing rawhides of sacrificial animals from areas including Dhaka city and its outskirts. They bought the hides at high prices, some of them allegedly stored the rawhides with a view to selling directly to the tanners, which put the whole chain in disarray, traders and tanners said.
The tanners also claimed that some seasonal traders also formed syndicates among themselves and were trying to force the tanners to purchase the collected rawhides and skin of sacrificial animals at higher prices. According to sources, there are around 550 middlemen at Posta in the city alone. The middlemen and small traders sell the hides to big traders at Posta, who salt those and preserve in warehouses and then sell to tanneries.
Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association set a target to collect about 2 million pieces of rawhides and skin this year. The collected raw hides and skin from outside Dhaka would reach 'Posta' after a week, said Tipu Sultan adding that they were hopeful of full procurement.
Nearly 50 per cent of the annual rawhide collection is made during Eid-ul-Azha, 10 per cent during Eid-ul-Fitr and two per cent during Shab-e-Barat, according to the Department of Livestock. More or less 50 per cent of the country's annual demand for hides and skin is met from animals sacrificed during Eid-ul-Azha, they said.
Meanwhile, law enforcers have been put on high alert to check smuggling of rawhides of sacrificial animals, as a portion of those is smuggled out to neighbouring India every year. The Home Ministry has asked the law enforcement agencies, especially Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to remain on high alert in border areas to stop smuggling of the raw materials of the country's leather industry.
It also asked the law enforcers not to allow trucks loaded with hides and skin of the sacrificial animals to leave the city for seven days from Eid-ul-Azha. Check-posts have already been set up at strategic points across the country including the entry and exit points to stop the smuggling of rawhides. Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are guarding the check-posts round the clock.
Security measures have been intensified at different strategic points of the country especially in 15 points along the border areas with India from where rawhide of sacrificial animals can be smuggled out after the Eid-ul-Azha.
mzrbd@yahoo.com