95 lakh pieces of rawhide to be collected

Target set by BTA, Collection starts today

Staff Correspondent: The tanners will start buying salted rawhides of sacrificial animals from today (Thursday). Shahin Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA), said 154 tanneries in the country will buy salted rawhides at the price fixed by the government all over the country.
He said this at a press conference at the VIP lounge of Dhanmondi Club in the capital yesterday. Tanners and leaders of the organization also present at the press conference.
Shahin told reporters at the press conference that some 3.5 lakh pieces of rawhide have been collected by the tanners in the last three days.
He hoped to collect 95 lakh pieces of rawhide of cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep.
The BTA president said that chemicals are required for processing rawhides. Tanners collect chemicals under supervised bond facility.
“For the interest of the tannery industry, it is necessary to maintain supervised bonds and increase the scope of its benefits. BTA has already applied to the National Board of Revenue to increase this facility,” he said.
Last year, tanners collected around 300,000 pieces of rawhide during Eid, the most productive time of the year for the industry.
Usually, staff and representatives of local mosques, madrasas and orphanages collect rawhide as a donation from households in Dhaka. Some seasonal traders also buy rawhide on Eid day and then sell them to wholesalers.
Wholesalers later preserve the rawhide with salt before selling them to the tanneries. Every year, the commerce ministry fixes the price at which the tanneries purchase rawhide. Some tanneries, however, buy rawhide directly from the middlemen.
The government has fixed the price of salted cowhide at Tk 47 to Tk 52 per square foot for the tanneries in Dhaka. The price is Tk 40 to Tk 44 for the tanneries outside Dhaka. In both cases, the price increased by Tk 7 over last year. Salted goatskin was sold to the tanneries at a rate of Tk 18 to Tk 20 per square foot across the country, a Tk 3 increase from last year.
Shahin lauded the ‘timely steps’ taken by the government ahead of Eid for the upturn in collections this year.
“A monitoring cell was formed at the local level with the help of deputy commissioners and as a result, rawhides were preserved in different upazilas.”
He also praised the government for not allowing rawhides to be brought to Dhaka from other parts of the country for a week after Eid day.
“Tannery owners lack the capacity to collect and store millions of pieces of rawhides in half a day. That is why the skins have been preserved with salt in different districts.”
Asked why rawhide prices are lower this time, Shahin said, “The prices of leather or leather goods have not decreased in the international market. We aren’t able to sell the leather we produce to brand buyers.”