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to Tk 800 for similar hides last year.

Seasonal rawhide traders said despite the government’s price hike, they received no assurance from tannery owners that hides would be bought at the revised rates.

According to them, tannery owners offered lower prices than last year, forcing traders to buy hides at reduced rates.

Tannery owners, however, denied the allegations, claiming that prices had instead increased by Tk 50 to Tk 60 per piece compared with last year.

Shamsul Haque, a trader at the capital’s Posta, one of the rawhide trading hubs, said he was buying small, medium and large raw hides for between Tk 250 and Tk 700.

He said the government should set prices based on the market situation.

Jahangir Alam brought about 100 cowhides from Uttara to Posta for sale. Speaking to The Daily Star, he said he had bought each hide at an average price of Tk 500 to Tk 550.

“But now buyers are not offering more than Tk 600 per piece on average. For smaller hides, they are saying they will not pay even a single taka and are asking us to give them away for free,” he said.

“Last year, I sold hides of the same size for Tk 800 to Tk 850. The government sets prices, but if those rates are not enforced in the market, then what is the point of fixing them?” he added.

Abid Hossain Hanif, a seasonal trader from the Science Lab area, said he bought small raw hides at Tk 400 to Tk 450, medium ones at Tk 500, and large ones at Tk 550 to Tk 600.

He said prices were somewhat lower compared to last year because traders were buying hides at the rates offered by tannery owners.

In Gazipur, local schoolteacher Badsha Abdullah, 35, said, “I sold the hide of a bull worth Tk 161,000 for only Tk 250. Even then, nobody wanted to buy it. I had to request a trader to take the hide.”

Aminul Islam, a rawhide supplier and trader from Kalidasgati village in Sirajganj Sadar upazila, said, “This year, I am purchasing fewer rawhides because the market condition is not good. Large size cow rawhide is currently being sold for Tk 700 to Tk 750.”

The government fixed rawhide prices this year, raising salted cowhide rates in Dhaka by Tk 2 per square foot. Cowhide was fixed at Tk 62 to Tk 67, goat skin at Tk 25 to Tk 30, and she goat skin at Tk 22 to Tk 25 per square foot.

Accordingly, a small salted hide may fetch between Tk 990 and Tk 1,200. A medium-sized salted cowhide is expected to fetch Tk 1,300 to Tk 1,850, while a large salted cowhide may range from Tk 1,900 to Tk 2,600.

Usually, the hide of a large cow measures 31 to 40 square feet, a medium-sized cowhide 21 to 30 square feet, and a small cowhide 16 to 20 square feet.

Tipu Sultan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants’ Association, said they were buying hides at rates either Tk 50 below or Tk 50 above the government-set prices.

He said the number of animals sacrificed had decreased this year. Their target was to collect 100,000 hides, but given the current situation, even collecting 80,000 would be difficult, he added.

Md Shakawat Ullah, senior vice chairman of the Bangladesh Tanners Association, claimed that rawhide prices had not decreased this year and were instead Tk 20 to Tk 50 higher than last year.

“I have purchased hides at prices ranging from Tk 650 to Tk 950,” he said.

Tannery owners have set a target of collecting 75 lakh to 80 lakh sacrificial animal hides this year. Of the total, they aim to directly purchase around 80 percent of the hides in Dhaka.

Last year, they directly bought around 750,000 to 800,000 hides in the capital.