Imrul Hossain of DOT
Rawhide traders have backtracked on their decision not to sell rawhide to tanners and decided to resume business from yesterday.
Earlier, Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association announced a halt to sales to tanners citing dues.
The commerce ministry on Sunday called a meeting with stakeholders of the leather industry to find a way out of the crisis.
Mohammad Delwar Hossain, president of the association, told the media after the meeting that they agreed to resume sales to tanners.
“We have started selling salt-treated rawhide complying with request of the Commerce Ministry. We have decided to sell 50 percent rawhide on cash. The tanners have not cleared the dues of Tk 400 crore from 2012 till 2019.We do not know when the dues will be cleared. The FBCCI, the apex trade body, will mediate the issue of unpaid bills at a meeting on August 22,” Delwar said.
This year, the country’s rawhide business is in disarray due to the free-fall in rawhide prices during Eid-ul-Azha.
Rawhide traders and tanners are blaming each other for the worst rawhide season the sector has seen in a decade.
Thousands of rawhides were dumped while a large quantity of valuable rawhides got rotten across the country.