As people return to the capital after the Eid holidays, the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway is greeting travellers not with its usual green surroundings and fresh earthy air, but with an unmistakable stench: rotting rawhides.

The Ministry of Commerce had increased the price of cowhide in Dhaka by Tk 5-10 per square foot, setting the official rate at Tk 60-65

Hide of Tk 1 lakh cow sold at Tk 400

The government today hiked prices of salt applied cow-rawhide by 6 per cent to Tk 50-Tk 55 per square feet (sft) in Dhaka during the Eid-ul-Azha, which is going to be celebrated on June 29.

The government today hiked the prices of cow-rawhide by 8 per cent to Tk 47-Tk 52 per square foot (sqft) in Dhaka during Eid-ul-Azha when millions of cattle are sacrificed by Muslims to perform their religious duties.

Although tanners were supposed to start buying rawhide at the government-fixed rates yesterday, merchants refused to sell, demanding the payment of a “considerable” portion of their arrears.

Some 35 percent of more than 1 crore pieces of rawhide were thrown away after this Eid, mainly due to slack market monitoring by the government, a syndication of some tanners and merchants, and merchants’ lack of capital to buy rawhide, said sources in the sector.

BNP has demanded withdrawal of the government decision to lift the ban on rawhide export for the sake of the country's leather industry.

Price of rawhide has fallen sharply causing immense loss to the small traders during this Eid-ul-Azha.