Numerous rawhide traders in the port city of Chittagong are reportedly grappling with the closure of their businesses as they struggle to find local buyers and face challenges in collecting payments from tanneries in Dhaka.
According to the traders, Chittagong used to have 22 tanneries that purchased rawhides a few years ago. However, all but one of these tanneries has shut down due to financial losses and their inability to establish effluent treatment plants (ETPs) as per regulatory requirements.
Presently, only Riff Leather operates in Chittagong with an ETP which is in compliance with tannery regulations, but it purchases only a small fraction of the total rawhides collected in the district even as Riff Leather’s demand is reportedly limited to a mere one lakh pieces of rawhide, while approximately six lakh pieces are gathered from Chittagong and neighbouring districts on the day of Eid-ul-Azha alone.
Consequently, rawhide traders in Chittagong are compelled to sell their products at low prices, often on credit, to tanneries in Dhaka. Apart from the issue of poor prices, recovering dues from Dhaka tanneries also reportedly poses a major problem and it takes around eight to 10 months, and sometimes even a year, to receive payments.
As a result, these traders suffer significant losses, relying on bank loans or moneylenders to sustain their businesses, as claimed stated by the rawhide traders in Chittagong.
