Rawhide traders in Tangail are going through a rough patch this year as thousands of pieces of rawhides of sacrificial animals have remained unsold because of poor responses from the agents of tanners and merchants.
Many people have donated their rawhides this time as they could not sell them at fair prices.
This year, the prices of the rawhides are being sold at the prices set by the government. Those who sacrificed the animals have fallen victim to middlemen and seasonal traders.
In the district, rawhides which once used to sell for lakhs are being sold for only Tk 300-350. As a result, many are donating the rawhides to local madrassas, mosques, or orphanages instead of selling them.
There are no buyers for rawhides at the Pakutia Bazar in Ghatail Upazila, the largest leather market in Tangail. On June 19, only a few buyers came to the leather market after Eid-ul-Azha, but buyers offered prices lower than the government-set rates.
Several rawhides sellers stated that Pakutia's leather market used to sit on Wednesdays and Sundays. Due to a lack of demand and buyers of rawhides nowadays, the Wednesday market doesn’t get as crowded as it used to, and it only gets a little crowded when buyers come on Sunday.
After Eid-ul-Azha, the Wednesday market was the first, so sellers brought rawhides. Since there were no buyers, they had to take the hides back home, apply salt, and stack them.
Meanwhile, there are wholesale rawhide traders in Kalihati Upazila’s Ballah. Although there used to be 20-25 wholesalers in Ballah, only 7-8 remain due to losses. Among them, wholesalers like Julhas Company, Ahammad Ali, Ajgar Ali, Shah-alam Miah, Din Islam, Mizanur Rahman, and Ali Hossain are buying some rawhides.
They said that in rural areas, no one buys rawhides by foot but by size measured by eyes. This time, they have bought large cowhides from seasonal leather traders for Tk 300-350 per piece. After collecting rawhides, it needs to apply salt quickly and stack them. This process continues for a few more days.
The initial expense including the cost of applying salt and labour for each piece of rawhide is about Tk 600. However, the government has set the price for salted rawhides outside Dhaka at only Tk 1,000 taka per piece.
Local wholesalers have claimed that it has been more than a decade that Dhaka's tannery owners owe around Tk 25-30 crore to the rawhide traders of the Balla area. Although the tannery owners promised to pay before Eid, they keep delaying payment year after year.
They also bought rawhides from the middlemen or seasonal traders and supplied them to the tanneries. As the tannery owners had not paid yet, some were forced to sell their land and houses to pay the money to middlemen or seasonal traders, close the business and move to other professions.
They mentioned that the rawhides industry lost its charm due to the transfer of the rawhides industry from the capital’s Posta to Hemayetpur in Savar. Similarly, due to the decline in the price of rawhides, traders in these regions have been driven to the brink. Those who remain are struggling to sustain their professions.
However, after independence, almost every household in this region had warehouses - there were large depots. Now, there are only 7-8 depots. At that time middlemen or seasonal traders used to collect rawhides from house to house. Nowadays, they buy large quantities of rawhides from mosques or orphanages. People who sacrifice animals worth TK one lakh for Eid-ul-Azha find it better to donate the cowhides to mosques or orphanages instead of selling them for just Tk 300-350.
Local traders said that the largest rawhide market in Tangail is in Ghatail’s Pakutia. This year, however, the presence of leather and buyers was minimal even there. Although there are prices for cowhides, goat or sheep hides have no price. Some people throw goat or sheep hides by the roadside, or seasonal traders take them for Tk 5-8 per piece on request.
It should be noted that this year, the government-fixed price for cowhide in Dhaka is Tk 55-60 per square foot, and outside Dhaka, the price per square foot outside Dhaka is Tk 55-55. Additionally, the goat hides price in Dhaka has been set at Tk 20-25 per square foot. However, seasonal traders or middlemen are not buying at these prices, citing increased salt prices and processing costs as reasons.
