In Tangail, sacrificial animal hides are traded by the piece rather than by the square foot. This year a large quantity of hides has arrived at the district's biggest hide market, at Pakutia in Ghatail, but there are no buyers. The market sits on Sundays and Wednesdays and usually trades hides worth crores of taka each time. This year middlemen bought medium-sized cow hides in the field for Tk 200 to 500 and brought them to the market. Goat skins were not seen being traded in the field; instead they were taken free along with cow hides. In some places large goat skins were bought for Tk 10-20, and small goat skins were seen being thrown away.

According to the district livestock office, of the 185,263 animals sacrificed in the district this year, 68,641 were cattle and buffalo. In addition, 112,581 goats and 4,041 sheep were sacrificed.

Seasonal hide trader Azgar Ali said he bought 60 medium-sized cow hides from villages at Tk 450 each and salted them. With no sun, they cannot be dried. When he tries to sell, wholesalers and commission agents offer Tk 500 a piece, and he says this will leave him at a loss.

Another seasonal trader, Mostafa Zaman, said he bought 12 large, or nagra, cow hides at Tk 800 each and salted them. At the Pakutia market wholesalers offered Tk 900 a piece. He will lose money if he sells for less than Tk 1,200 each, he said.

The seasonal traders said cow hides from animals sacrificed by village communities were bought at Tk 200 to 500 a piece. They were washed, salted and brought to the Pakutia market on Sunday morning (2 July), but because of the rain the salted hides could not be dried. As it was the first market after Eid, most beparis (traders) bought nothing at Pakutia on Sunday. Two to four beparis bought medium-sized cow hides at Tk 300 to 500 a piece.

They said that having bought hides at Tk 200-500 and salted them, selling at Tk 300-500 would mean a loss. So instead they decided to salt the hides again, dry them in the sun and sell them to commission agents or at the Pakutia market next Wednesday (5 July) or Sunday (9 July). As no commission agent for goat skins came to the market, 100 large goat skins changed hands for Tk 800 to 1,100.

Hide traders said 60,000-65,000 pieces of raw hide were collected in Tangail on Eid day (Thursday) and the following day (Friday), salted and taken to the Pakutia market. As most did not sell on Sunday, they were taken back to warehouses, salted again and stacked in dabor (salted piles). They will be sent to tannery owners in Dhaka within 15-20 days.

The traders said hides in Tangail are sold by the piece. Each village has several community groups; although people sacrifice animals separately, the hides are sold together by the community. Seasonal traders buy hides from these village groups at fairly low prices and sell them on to wholesalers at a small profit. Village hides are somewhat cheaper because cattle sacrificed in villages are generally smaller, while larger cattle are sacrificed in towns, so hides there fetch a little more.

Commission agents Ahammad Ali and Ali Hossain said the price of salted cow hide outside Dhaka has been set at Tk 45-48 per square foot, up from Tk 40-44 last time. The price of castrated goat skin was left unchanged at Tk 18-20 per square foot and female goat skin at Tk 12-14. But in Tangail hides are traded by the piece, not the square foot. At the prices middlemen paid in the field, there is a risk of losses, and even if they wanted to, agents cannot pay more than the government-set price, they said.

According to the seasonal traders, 60,000-65,000 goat skins were traded this time. The rest had to be given free with medium-sized cow hides or thrown away. Only 20-25 sheep skins could be collected; the others were thrown away. They said they look forward to big profits at Eid ul-Adha, but that has not happened for the past few years. Still, they keep hoping.

Md Rakib Khan, who holds the lease of the Pakutia hide market, said he leased the market this year for about Tk 32 lakh. Although hides arrived for the first market after Eid, very few were sold. Middlemen who bought some hides and could not sell them left them in salted piles in the market's warehouse. Most commission agents did not come, and representatives of companies and tanneries from Dhaka, who come to most markets, also stayed away. Judging by the situation, the middlemen seem set to suffer losses this year as they did last year, he said.

Tangail district livestock officer Dr Md Rana Mia said 185,263 animals were sacrificed in the district this year, 68,641 of them cattle and buffalo. Hides are overseen by the commerce ministry, he said. People making sacrifices were advised on how to remove hides properly, but many may still have made mistakes in skinning the slaughtered animals.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.