Wholesalers agree to sell rawhides to tanners

The wholesale traders of hides and skins of the country on Sunday agreed to sell rawhides to the tannery owners as they promised to pay the traders their dues gradually.

Following a meeting with the representatives of the tanners and the rawhide wholesalers at the commerce ministry in the city, industries minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun told reporters that the on-going standoff between the two sides of the rawhide business over payment had been resolved.

He also said that the government did not see any crisis in the leather sector as a very insignificant quantity of the total rawhides got wasted this year.

The quantity was, however, a little bit higher than the last year’s, he hastened to add. 

The minister claimed that just about 10 thousand pieces of rawhide of sacrificial animals went useless this year, which were only one per cent of the total hides.

‘Usually 0.5 per cent of the rawhides get wasted in every Eid-ul-Azha and this year it is a little bit higher due to hot weather. The quantity of wasted hides is insignificant and it won’t put any impact on the country’s leather sector,’ he said.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that the Chattogram City Corporation alone had discharged more than one lakh pieces of rotten cowhides from roads as small businesses threw them away due to lack of minimum acceptable prices, the minister blamed the  BNP for the matter.

He said, ‘It might be an act of the BNP. Perhaps people involved in BNP politics collected the rawhides and dumped them on the roads to embarrass the government.’      

The commerce ministry arranged the meeting to resolve the deadlock between the tanners and the wholesalers as the latter announced that they would not sell rawhides to the tanners until they paid the Tk 400 crore owed to them (wholesalers).

Following the meeting, the industries minister said that all the problems were resolved and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry would act as the mediator to realise the dues of the traders from the tanners.

The Bangladesh Hides and Skins Merchants Association president Md Delwar Hossain said that the wholesalers agreed in the meeting to sell rawhides to the tannery owners as the tanners promised to pay the dues.

He also said that a meeting would be held on August 22 at the FBCCI office about the mode of payment as the minister asked the apex trade body to resolve the issue.

Prime minister’s private industry and investment affairs adviser Salman F Rahman, senior secretary of commerce ministry Md Mofizul Islam, FBCCI vice-president Md Siddiqur Rahman, Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association of Bangladesh president Md Saiful Islam, Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association president Mohiuddin Ahmed Mahin and Bangladesh Tanners Association secretary Md Shakawat Ullah among others were attended the meeting.

News Curtesy: www.newagebd.net