Rawhide traders eye Tk 12bn this year

Traders expect to earn at least Tk 12 billion during this year's Eid Ul Azha season of rawhide business as they receive better prices than the previous years'.

The tannery owners aim to collect 9.2 million rawhides of sacrificial animals this time. The Muslims in Bangladesh sacrificed a total of nearly 9.95 million animals across the country during Eid-ul-Azha this year. However, around 300,000 rawhides got damaged while being processed, the sources concerned said.

But Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA) Chairman Shaheen Ahamed claimed that the possibility of rawhides getting damaged this year is not much as there is enough supply of salt and the rawhides are being preserved locally.

“There are some possibilities for goat rawhides to get damaged. But the tanneries are ready to take 9,2 million units of product this year. The business deal of rawhides in the Eid season takes nearly two to three months to complete. We expect a transaction of nearly Tk 12 billion this year,” Shaheen Ahamed, also managing director at Anjuman Trading, said.

The business leader informed that the open market sales of rawhide from outside Dhaka will start in full swing by Saturday.

Regarding the decline of retail sales, BTA chief said that the tanneries in Dhaka preserved the rawhides in cold storage in Amin Bazar and Posta in their own management.

Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leathergoods & Footwear Exporters' Association chairman Mohiuddin Ahmed said the rawhides collected during Eid Ul Azha are fully export-oriented.

“The Qurbani is a peak season for the export-oriented leather goods maker. There is a huge demand for Bangladesh leather products in the European market. However, some non-compliance issues remain at the country's tanneries that may hinder the growth of the business,”  Mohiuddin Ahmed said.

The trade leader expects that the leather sector might see a 20 percent growth year-on-year if the tanneries addressed the non-compliance issues.

Bangladesh earned $1.24 billion from the exports of leather and leather goods in the fiscal year 2021-22.

The sector insiders are claiming that the European Union (EU) and the US brands stopped buying Bangladeshi leather due to the pollution in Hemayetpur, known as the leather city. As a result, the main buyer of Bangladeshi leather is now China.

The tanneries in Hazaribagh have been declared a red zone by the authorities, a move which prevents the tannery owners from selling off their facilities. This puts the tannery owners into trouble paying their bank loans.