Rawhide trading is going on though traders are yet to receive their previous years’ arrears from the tanners. There is also uneasiness among the traders that they might have to sell hides on credit again to the same tanners. Traders are expecting a solution regarding their dues to the tanners from today’s (Thursday’s) meeting of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI).
For the third consecutive day, tanners collected rawhides from traders on Wednesday. Visiting the capital’s Posta area it was seen that rawhide trading was going on as per the government-set rate. While talking, several wholesale traders said that the tanners were buying hides at government-set rate. But, they are not happy as the tanners are yet to pay their dues of previous years’. They are also worrying that they will have to sell some of their hides on credit to the same tanners who are yet to pay their dues.
On the other hand, tanners said that there were some paltry misunderstandings between the tanners and the wholesalers, which has already been resolved. They said they are collecting rawhides and this will continue the next two months across the country. Traders of Lalbagh area said they have outstanding dues with the tanners since 1990, and due to the long nonpayment of arrears, some of the traders failed to continue their business and ultimately became bankrupt. Tanners are buying hides from them on credit but not paying for them in time.
As a result, for lack of fund, they were unable to collect sufficient amount of rawhide from seasonal traders during the recently concluded Eid-ul-Adha, the prime time for collecting rawhides, they alleged. A wholesale trader Hazi Sayed said, “In spite of scarcity of fund, we collected rawhides at a reasonable price from the seasonal traders. We started selling hides from last Monday, and perhaps we may have to sell some of them on credit.”
Bangladesh Hides and Skin Merchant Association president Delwar Hossain said they have started trading of hides after holding discussion among themselves. “We hope the FBCCI will play an important role so that the tanners pay our dues,” he said. On the other hand, Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) general secretary Sakhawat Ullah said, “We are hopeful that our meeting with the FBCCI will find a solution to the ongoing situation.”
According to the BTA, the tanners till Wednesday bought 5 lakh pieces of rawhides from the traders. It is to be noted, the government had set the price of cowhide at Tk 45 to 50 per SFT in Dhaka and Tk 35 to 40 per SFT for outside Dhaka while the prices of castrated-goat skin had been set at Tk 18 to 20 per SFT and that of goatskin at Tk 13 to 15 per SFT across the country.
