Ctg rawhides market yet to get pace

Pankaj Dastider CHITTAGONG, Nov 17: Tanneries have started to purchase rawhides from the city's wholesale markets following the growing demand from local export-oriented shoe factories. Wholesalers at Aturar Depot in the city said buyers from Dhaka are coming to the wholesale depots everyday and procuring rawhides. But the sale is yet to get full pace due to lower prices being offered by the buyers, they added. "The buyers bought 6000 pieces of rawhides on a single day last Saturday. The buyers are coming everyday from Dhaka but they are offering relatively lower prices. The sale is likely to gain pace in the coming weeks," one of the wholesalers commented. The buyers are offering an average price of Tk 1600 per piece of rawhide on which we cannot agree. We will have to incur losses if we sell our products to them at their offered prices, as this year our purchase price is higher than previous year, said the wholesaler. If the tanneries of Dhaka offer a bit more we can sell around 0.35 million pieces of rawhides, he added. General Secretary of the Chittagong Rawhide Wholesalers Cooperative Society Mohd Khorshed Alam told the FE that the tanneries from Dhaka had collected 18 containers of rawhides from Muradpur, Bahaddarhat and Choumuhani Pathantolly areas of the city in the post-Eid-ul-Azha week. "In spite of recent declining trend in the international market, we are hopeful that the country's shoes industries will procure finished leather from the local tanneries," said another office-bearer of the association at Aturar Depot. The Chittagong wholesalers have collected about 0.42 million pieces of rawhides of cow and goat from Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and three hill districts of the region, said founder president of the Rawhide Wholesalers Cooperative Society Hafez Jafar Ahmed. However, Chittagong-based Riff Leather of the TK Group of Industries purchased a good number of rawhides over the last three days and is expecting to procure more from the local market. Madina Tannery, one of the largest finished leather industries in Chittagong, did not buy rawhide until today. Madina Tannery's Managing Director Abu Mohammed, who owns three tanneries in the city's Oxygen area, told the FE Wednesday night that he procured adequate quantity of rawhide earlier. "Besides, rawhide import has increased significantly due to growing export of leather goods from the country, as the government is allowing duty-free import," he said. Director of Riff Leather Ltd. Md Mokhlesur Rahman told the FE today afternoon that their foreign buyers had advised them to go slow with their existing orders due mainly to the declining trend in the international market. "The importers from China and Hong Kong have advised us to stop exporting finished leather against the orders already they issued. So let us see where the market goes," he said. In spite of this his company procured rawhides from the local market this week and expects to buy more considering growing demand from the export-oriented shoe factories located inside the two export processing zones (EPZs) in Chittagong. Parties from some major shoe factories from Chittagong and Dhaka have contacted them for finished leather, an official of the Riff Leather Ltd. said. "A number of shoe factories, including two Taiwan-owned factories, are located in Chittagong and Karnafuli EPZs at Patenga that need huge quantity of finished leather," the official said requesting not to be named.