The Dhaka Times Desk A sector with huge potential is the leather industry. This leather industry is going downhill. Today, this sector is sinking due to various problems.
Last Eid al-Adha did not achieve the target as expected. In the context of our country, half of the leather that is extracted throughout the year comes from this Eid of Sacrifice. A large number of cows, goats, sheep and other animals are sacrificed. However, a lot of skins are smuggled into neighboring India.
The amount of foreign exchange we are supposed to earn by exporting leather and leather products is not coming. This is because the industry has not yet been organized in such a way. Initiatives have already been taken to move the tanneries from Old Dhaka. But they are still not fully functional. Tannery traders complain that they are still unable to do business due to financial crisis. All in all, this industry is not progressing as far as it should go.
There is huge potential in this industry. But leather industry is not developing properly due to various problems. According to one information, 18 to 20 percent of the total skin is wasted every year due to the lack of proper skin removal and maintenance. Tannery owners feel that a huge amount of leather has been smuggled during Eid al-Adha like every year. Due to which thousands of crores of rupees are being lost. Because if salt is not applied within 24 to 48 hours of animal slaughter, even 15 percent of those skins are not useful.
Those concerned think that contributing more than 9 percent to the export sector, modernizing the tannery to strengthen the leather sector, increasing the competitiveness in the international market, increasing the production of materials used in the leather industry, training for removing the skin from the animal body in the right way, preservation, taking effective measures to prevent smuggling etc. Campaigning and raising awareness on the issue is essential.
According to the data of the Department of Livestock, 48 percent of the skins collected in the country are available during Eid al-Adha. The rest is obtained from animals slaughtered throughout the year.
Tannery owners said that it becomes very difficult to store leather during Qurbani Eid during summer. In this case, it has to be preserved with salt within 10 to 12 hours after removing the skin. But due to the long process of transportation, excessive profit tendency, sometimes the skin is not salted at the right time and in sufficient quantity. Again, many skins spoil due to not being stored at the right temperature (4 to 8 degrees Celsius).
In the financial year 2013-14, the income from the export of leather and leather products was 112 crore 41 lakh 70 thousand US dollars. Its previous year in the fiscal year 2012-13 was 986 million 70 thousand US dollars. And the previous year in the fiscal year 2011-12, only 76 million 50 million 30 thousand US dollars worth of products were exported.
At present Bangladesh exports leather to Italy, New Zealand, Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom and United States of leather and leather products. These leather products include shoes, bags, belts and other daily use products. The global leather industry has an export market worth around $23 billion. There, Bangladesh exports products worth more than 1 billion dollars. A target has been set to increase this export to 7 billion dollars in the next 10 years.
According to one information, almost all the raw hides of the current Bangladesh region were sent to Kolkata for processing until the partition of the country in 1947. During the Pakistan era, before independence in 1965, there were a total of 30 tanneries in the country. However, although Bangladesh became independent in 1971, this leather industry began to gain special importance from the beginning of the 90s. Although the condition of nearly 8 lakh workers directly and indirectly working in this industry is still deplorable. Every year many workers are suffering from various serious diseases due to not using any mask during work and their lack of awareness about the chemicals used in leather processing.
Despite various problems, leather industry of this country has huge potential. The availability of good quality raw materials and cheap labor have pushed this sector forward. In the first two months of the current fiscal year 2014-15, the export of leather and leather products decreased compared to the previous fiscal year, but the export income of this sector has been increasing continuously for the past few years. If it is sustained, it is believed that the economy of the country will get a huge boost.
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