Desk Report: Prices of cattle rawhides have this year gone down drastically compared to last few decades, reports Asian Age. However, prices of shoes, belts, bags and other leather goods have no sign of decreasing. Rather shoes have become even costlier despite the nosedive in rawhides prices. This is a paradoxical scenario and it poses grim threats to the country’s leather industry.
Shikha Rahman, who resides in the capital’s Dhanmondi area has said that she had to sell the skin of sacrificial animals for a peanut price but she was shocked and puzzled to see the costs of leather items in shops escalating by leaps and bounds.
Shikha Rahman said she sold her sacrificial cattle’s rawhide for just three hundred taka whereas she had to buy leather sandals and shoes for three to four thousand taka.
This is an instance of discrimination and market anomalies according to Shikha Rahman. Such huge difference between raw materials and goods have annoyed a lot of people who have expressed their anguish on social networks including facebook.
A gentleman named Atik Rahman has posted on facebook, “We are buying leather items for six thousand taka while leather price is just three hundred taka. What sort of business is it?”
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Passengers Welfare Society has stated on social media,”Prices of shoes have constantly increased during last five years though rawhides have become steadily cheaper.

It is astonishing. Such inconsistency between the prices of raw leather and leather products have put ordinary consumers in trouble.”
This year each cow’s skin was sold for three to eight hundred taka all over Bangladesh. Tannery owners have announced to purchase leather at the price stipulated by the government. 30% of this leather is used in the domestic market which are used for manufacturing shoes, sandals, bags, jackets etc.
But what is the reason behind so higher prices of leather commodities while leather price has dropped immensely? Mohiuddin Ahmed, President, Bangladesh Finished Leather and Leather Goods Manufacturers Association said, “Manufactured goods cannot be matched with raw materials.
Rawhides come to us through various hands. The rawhide which you sell for three hundred taka, we have to pay a much bigger sum of money for the same thing. This is how prices of leather goods increase as labor remunerations and processing costs are also added.”
Bangladesh at present has a market of around 150 crore dollars for leather goods according to Mohiuddin Ahmed. These products include shoes, wallets, bags, sandals, bags, jackets and so on.People have urged the authorities concerned to look into the phenomenon so that leather goods and rawhides can be sold for logical prices.