People will have to sell rawhides of sacrificial animals at throwaway prices this year as the lather sector leaders with the consent of the government officials are going to announce the prices of the hides at least 35 per cent lower than the prices of last year. The tanners have been reducing the buying rate of rawhide ahead of Eid-ul-Azha every year since 2013 in the name of slow demand and price fall in global market. As per the government direction, the sector leaders would make announcement of the buying rate of the rawhide on September 23 through a press conference. At a meeting with the commerce ministry high officials, led by its secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, the leather sector leaders on Sunday put a price list of rawhide that has been prepared a few days ago through discussions among leaders of three organisations of the sector. A meeting source said that the leaders of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association, Bangladesh Tanners Association and Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association proposed the prices of cow hide at Tk 45-50 a square feet for Dhaka and Tk 40-45 a square feet for outside of Dhaka. According to the source, the commerce ministry agreed with the price list of rawhide proposed by the sector leaders. The meeting sources said that the sector people proposed to set the prices of castrated goat skin at Tk 25-30 a square feet, goat skin at Tk 15-20 a square feet and the skin of buffalo at Tk 30-35 a square feet. The tanners’ sector leaders proposed the buying prices of cow hide at Tk 45-50 a square feet for Dhaka citing price fall in international market but now the item is being sold at Tk 70-75 a square feet in Dhaka. More than 60 per cent of total demand of rawhide is met by the hides of sacrificial animals and the tanners sector targeted to collect 40-45 lakh rawhides this year. In the year 2014, the tanners also set the prices of rawhide lower than the prices of 2013 on the same excuse. Last year, the tanners set per square feet of cowhide for Tk 70-75 in Dhaka and Tk 60-65 across the country outside Dhaka, goatskin for Tk 30-35 and buffalo skin for Tk 35-40 while the tanners bought per square feet of cowhide for Tk 85-95 in Dhaka and Tk 75-80 outside Dhaka, goatskin for Tk 50-55 and buffalo skin for Tk 40-45 in the year 2013. ‘We held a meeting with the leather sector leaders and asked them to set an acceptable price of rawhide by September 23,’ commerce secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon told New Age following the meeting. He said that no rate of buying prices of rawhide was approved at the meeting, but sector leaders have been asked to set reasonable prices and to announce the prices through a press conference. ‘After the announcement of rawhide prices if we see that the set prices are not reasonable then the government will take necessary initiative,’ Hedayetullah said. Md Shaheen Ahmed, chairman of the BTA, told New Age that at the meeting, the prices of rawhide were not set but the commerce ministry asked the sector leaders to announce the prices on September 23. ‘The three organisations will finalise the prices through meeting considering the international market and the rate will be announced on September 23,’ he said. Replying to a question, the commerce secretary said that If the sector people set low prices of rawhide they will have to explain the valid reasons for fixing lower prices. ‘The buying rate of rawhide would be made public through a press conference. If the prices are unreasonable, you (journalists) should ask them what is the valid reason,’ Hedayetullah said.
