Seasonal skin tradersincur losses in N-dists

RANGPUR, Nov 9 (BSS): The small-scale traders and middlemen incurred huge losses this time due to lack of demand with lower prices of sacrificial animal skins in the northern districts, market sources said. Leaders of the Skin Traders' Associations blamed 'syndicate of some greedy tannery owners' for not declaring purchasing rates in advance, creating complete uncertainty in trading of skins. President of Rangpur Skin Traders Association Abdul Latif Khan today told BSS that the middlemen incurred losses selling their purchased cow skins at rates of Taka 1,100 and 1,500 per piece after purchasing it at Taka 1,200 and 2,100 this time on an average. "Due to the prevailing uncertainty in the business, I purchased only 2,000 pieces cow skins and sold those at the purchased rates to save my capital for the first time in five decades of my ancestral business," he said. Khan requested Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to intervene into the market situation to save the skin industry sector now. According to the market sources, each piece of the cow skin was being sold at rates between Taka 1,800 and 3,000 depending on their sizes even before this Eid-ul-Azha in the northern districts. Middlemen Abdul Kuddus and Farooque said they purchased 70 to 100 pieces cow skins at average rates of Taka 1,750 per piece and incurred losses by selling those at Taka 1,350 per piece on an average. Gopalganj Our Correspondent from Gopalganj adds: The prices of raw hide and skin of sacrificed animals were low as a syndicate of dishonest traders allegedly manipulated the market in the district. Badsha Mia (55) a skin trader of Gopalganj town said, the price of skin fell sharply down in market. Price of and adult cow hide was sold at Tk 1500 to Tk 1600 a medium size one at Tk 800 to Tk 900 and a goat skin sold at Tk 100 to Tk 150 a piece here. Over one lakhs prieces of cow hides and 25,000 pieces of goat skins were sold on the Eid day (Monday) in Gopalganj, according to local traders. Badsha Mia further said, he invested Tk 8 lakhs for purchasing raw hide and skin but he had to sustain a loss of 15 per cent. Wholesalers fixed the prices of rawhides at Tk 55 to Tk 60 per square feet and thus, the price of a hide of a bull costing Tk 50,000 was expected to be over Tk 1500 but the sellers had to be content with only Tk 800 to Tk 900.