Four companies to get nod to export rawhides and wet blue

For the first time in 32 years, the Commerce Ministry is going to give permission to four companies to export rawhides and wet blue ahead of Eid-ul-Azha even as there has been a ban on the export of rawhides since independence, aimed at protecting the domestic tannery industry — the export of wet blue has also not been permitted since 1989 — even if the export ban will be lifted considering that rawhides of sacrificial animals were, reportedly, wasted in 2019 and 2020 for not getting fair prices.

Reports claim that many companies have submitted applications for permission over the last nine months, and the ministry has finally decided to allow four of them to export rawhides and wet blue in the fiscal year 2020-21 and a gazette notification, in this direction, will be issued soon even as concerned officials at the export wing of the Commerce Ministry, reportedly, maintained that Leather Industries of Bangladesh Limited had sought permission to export 3.70 crore sq. ft. of wet blue to Italy in the next three years, but the ministry would authorise export of 1 crore sq. ft. instead this fiscal year, while the Kalam Brother Tannery Limited will be able to export 60 lakh sq. ft. of wet blue to Thailand, China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, Spain and Germany (it applied to get permission to export 1.55 crore sq. ft. of tanned leather over a period of three years), AKS Investment China will get an approval to export 20 lakh sq. ft. of wet blue and Union Venture Limited will have the ministry’s consent to export 300 tonnes of rawhides every month to Cambodia, Vietnam and China.