Currently, Bangladesh can export tanned skins only to China as the country has not been able to obtain the much-required certification from the Leather Working Group (LWG) for a lack of compliance. 

About 90-95 lakh pieces of rawhides are likely to be collected from across the country this year.

Rawhide was not being bought and sold at prices fixed by the government, but the market situation was fairly good compared to last year.

Rawhide traders are expecting a good season for business this year as tanners have cleared last year’s arrears owed to them, which would in turn enable purchasing skins and hides from seasonal traders during upcoming Eid-ul-Azha. 

Like previous years, the government has been approving applications of different companies seeking to export rawhide to create demand and enable better prices, said Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary to the commerce ministry, yesterday. 

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.

Police are trying to curb rawhide supply into the tannery factories at Hazaribagh as tanners, once again, ignore government's latest deadline.

Industry Minister Amir Hossain Amu says that rawhide would not be allowed to enter tannery factories at Dhaka’s Hajaribagh to avert environment pollution in this area.