Business Report
Transportation of raw hide to border areas has been banned for 30 days from the Eid-Ul-Azha to stop its smuggling across the border. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed made the government decision public last week.
India does not allow slaughtering of cows but it has a booming leather and leather goods industry that needs hide-skin of livestock. The Eid festival is a unique annual event to supply the inputs in huge quantity and Indian businessmen engage agents inside the country to collect the rawhide and pass it across the border.
The cross border connectivity works well as most cattle heads come to Bangladesh on the occasion from India the suppliers use the trade on two-way traffic to sell cattle heads to Bangladesh in one hand and get back the rawhide on return journey.
Since Bangladesh has also a big leather industry and export market for leather and finished leather goods, the government and the industry owners in particular are critically opposed to smuggling of rawhide across the border. The government has therefore decided to ban the movement of raw hide to border areas after to the Eid-Ul-Azha festival for a limited period of time.
The government has therefore decided to deploy more border guards in border belt on this occasion to heighten vigilance against smuggling; Tofail Ahmed said after a meeting in the city with leaders of Bangladesh Tanners Association, Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchant Association and Bangladesh Finished Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association.
The move comes as a section of unscrupulous traders buy the rawhide at low cost on the occasion and sneak it out of the country. As a result, the country loses valuable inputs to the advantage of its competitors in international market.
Meanwhile, the commerce ministry is working to fix the minimum price of leather before the festival so that sellers at the grassroots get fair price and can be saved from price manipulation by a section of seasonal merchants.
More than 65.39 lakh cattle were sacrificed during last Eid-ul-Azha, according to the data from the Department of Livestock. The commerce ministry put a bar on export of rawhide from 2012 to meet the demand of the local leather industry, although many traders applied to the ministry seeking permission for export.
In fiscal 2013-14, Bangladesh exported leather, leather goods and footwear worth $1.30 billion, according to the commerce ministry. Japan, the EU and the US are the major markets for Bangladeshi leather and leather goods.
The Eid-ul-Azha is scheduled to be celebrated on October 6. At present, a total of 194 tanners buy rawhide during the Eid. The number of large tanneries is 266 and small and medium tanneries 1,600, the commerce minister said.
Source: Weekly Holiday