Govt raises prices of cowhide

The government yesterday hiked the price of cured cowhides in Dhaka by 8 per cent to Tk 47-52 per square foot (sqft) ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, when millions of cattle are sacrificed by the country's Muslim community as a part of their religious duties.

Similarly, the price of cowhides cured with salt will cost Tk 40 to Tk 44 outside the capital.

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Eid-ul-Azha accounts for nearly half of the rawhides collected annually, providing a key raw material for the $1.24 billion export-earning leather and leather goods industry in Bangladesh.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi announced the new prices through a virtual press conference from his office in Dhaka following a meeting with tanners and rawhide traders.

The government had fixed cowhide prices at Tk 40 to Tk 45 per sqft inside Dhaka and Tk 33 to Tk 37 per sqft everywhere else for last year's Eid-ul-Azha.

Meanwhile, the price of castrated goat hides has been fixed at Tk 18 to Tk 20 per sqft while the cost of female goat hides is Tk 12 to Tk 14 per sqft across the country this year.

Munshi also said rawhide laden trucks and other vehicles will not be allowed to enter Dhaka or the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate (STIE) in the first week of Eid in order to reduce the pressure of processing leather on the STIE's central effluent treatment plant.

The inflow of rawhides from all over the country, be it on a single day or a single week, is so high that the plant cannot bear the load with its present capacity.

If the rawhides are not processed in time, then a lot of them get damaged, he added.

The commerce minister went on to say that salt must be applied to the rawhides as a part of the curing process so that they can be preserved for at least one week before being sent to Dhaka and the STIE.

Like previous years, the government is approving the applications of different companies seeking to export rawhides to create more demand and enable better prices. Last year, the government allowed 14 companies to export 2.30 crore sqft of rawhide.

This year, the ministry may allow the export of nearly 60 lakh sqft of rawhide by a similar number of companies.

Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and other government high-ups were also present at the press conference.