Tanners miss deadline to set prices of rawhides

Tanners are yet to set the prices of rawhides of cattle to be slaughtered during Eid-ul-Azha as traders in the leather and rawhide business failed to reach a consensus on rates.

The tanners were supposed to declare the prices on Wednesday as per an instruction by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed given on Monday.

However, Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary to the commerce ministry, yesterday said: “Tanners and rawhide merchants will announce the prices tomorrow [today].”

Mamoon said the ministry will not set but review the prices if those are too high, in a bid to prevent smuggling.

Delwar Hossain, president of Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association, said tanners want to pay 30 percent less price than last year's.

On the other hand, rawhide merchants demand last year's prices should remain unchanged this year, Hossain said. He said the prices of rawhides in the international markets did not change a lot over the last one year.

“Due to the dispute, the prices could not be fixed in the stipulated 48 hours. Rawhides can be smuggled out of the country if the prices are set 30 percent less than last year's,” Hossain said.

“We will follow the international rates in fixing the prices for purchasing rawhides from the field level,” he said.

Last year, the price of salted cowhide was fixed between Tk 50 and Tk 55 per square foot in Dhaka and between Tk 40 and Tk 45 per sft outside the capital, according to data from Bangladesh Tanners' Association.

The price of goatskin was fixed between Tk 20 and Tk 22 per sft across the country last year.

In 2015-16, Bangladesh exported leather and leather goods worth $1.16 billion, which was $1.13 billion in the previous fiscal year, and $1.29 billion in 2013-14, according to Export Promotion Bureau.