Rawhide trade in Bogura in peril as many wholesalers stop trading

Many wholesalers in Bogura are not buying rawhides this Eid-ul-Adha as they are yet to recover a huge amount of dues from tanners in Dhaka, thus causing the seasonal as well as regular rawhide traders count losses.

"Tannery owners in Dhaka owe at least Tk30 crore to 16 traders in Bogura. Almost Tk7 crore of me and my brother has also got stuck," Bogura District Rawhide Trader's General Secretary Abdul Matin told The Business Standard. 

"The due was more, but the tannery owners paid some amount back in the last three years," he added.

At least 15 traders in Bogura are not buying any rawhide this year due to a shortage of capital.

Md Naser who has been trading rawhides for almost 20 years said he used to collect around 300 pieces of rawhides before the afternoon on the Eid day. "But this year, I collected only one hundred," he said.

Naser also pointed out the price of rawhides have reduced this year. "Last year, the rawhide of a cow that cost Tk1 lakh was sold at Tk1,000-1,200. The price has fallen to Tk700 this year. Meanwhile, rawhides of cows that cost Tk80-90 thousand are selling at Tk700," he said.

Seasonal rawhide trader Iqbal Hossain said he had to face losses by trading rawhides this year.

Similarly, seasonal trader Abdul Rashid who collected 50 pieces of rawhides and sold them in the wholesale marker of Bogura's Thana Mor area faced a loss of Tk6 thousand at the end.

Bogura Livestock Officer Dr Md Rafiqul Islam Talukder said Bogura had a total of 3 lakh 27 thousand sacrificial animals this year. Volunteers are conducting surveys on figuring out how many of them were sacrificed.