[🇧🇩] Footwear, Rubber and leather Industry in Bangladesh

[Saif]

Who is the primary competitor to Bangladesh for export of leather shoes in global markets? You guessed it - India.

In non-leather footwear (sports shoes like joggers and tennis footwear), we have outperformed India for the last thirty five years. In that sector, we are still losing to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, and now - Cambodia. Thailand and Indonesia will soon price themselves out of that market and they are not hugely focused on leather footwear at all.

Indians will always try their level best to sabotage Bangladesh leather industry - hook, line and sinker. They lost the garments sector to us because their products all fare horribly in quality and are made in sweatshop factories. The next sector they will lose is shoes and leather goods - Indians know it very well. This is one of the largest wage earners for semi-skilled labor in India.

Most Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are idiots and they hire Indians as 'experts' and these Bharatis do their level best to sabotage our leather shoes and bags export sector by interacting with foreign buyers and sending business to India.

Same with Hasina bringing in Indian 'experts' to 'advise on' the new leather processing zone in Savar for the last two decades and that has been an abject failure. One wonders why....

Ditto with API park for Pharma.

After all, if you can do deshbhakt andhbhakt work to sink the foreign revenue for a Muslim country and get paid on top of it, why won't you?

Our Govt. should ban hiring shoe and bag 'experts' (or any experts, for that matter) from competitor nations like India. Period.

There are a lot better experts found in SE Asian countries for our export industries. Specifically - China.

Hiring Chinese experts in textile & garment industries is a must for Bangladesh. Chinese people are friendly and honest. Hiring them will help our textile & garment industries to gain competitiveness in the global market. The same goes for leather industry. The Bangladeshi entrepreneurs should formulate a policy where priority will be given to hire Chinese experts. The Indian experts are selfish and crooked and must be avoided when comes to hiring them in our foreign exchange earning sectors.

 

[Saif]

https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/411253/leather-sector-bleeds-capital

Leather sector struggles under capital shortfall
Global traders harvest billions as local rawhide market collapses

Ahead of every Eid-ul-Azha, the sacrificial rawhide market re-emerges as a critical macroeconomic concern in Bangladesh.

Year after year, the government announces statutory price caps, state-owned banks clear seasonal credit lines, and tannery owners publish high-volume collection targets.

Meanwhile, grassroots stakeholders—including orphanages, madrasas, and seasonal collectors—wait in anticipation of a fair return.

However, for over a decade, the raw leather market has remained locked in a destructive cycle: sharp price crashes, severe mismanagement, processing bottlenecks, and a steady loss of competitiveness in international markets.

Rawhides, which once served as the primary source of funding for charitable orphanages and religious schools, are routinely sold at throwaway prices.

Despite being one of the world's largest producers of raw leather, Bangladesh’s multi-billion Taka leather industry is failing due to poor compliance, lack of infrastructure, market syndicates, and policy gaps.

Exploiting these local gaps, international buyers—predominantly from China—purchase semi-processed Bangladeshi crust leather at low costs, refine it to global compliance standards, and reap massive profits on the global market.

As another trading cycle begins, the central question resurfaces: who is actually profiting from Bangladesh’s leather resource?

Tannery owners have announced a target to collect 7.5 to 8 million pieces of sacrificial rawhide this season, aiming to purchase nearly 80% of Dhaka’s local supply directly.

To back this effort, three state-owned commercial banks approved Tk160 crore in seasonal credit lines, supported by limited private commercial funding.

However, industry experts question whether this liquidity injection can stabilize the market or if it will remain an underfunded on-paper target.

Tannery operators argue that the approved bank credit falls far short of actual market requirements, primarily because most tanneries have defaulted on past obligations and are legally barred from seeking fresh loans.

State-owned bank disbursals for rawhide purchases
​

• Sonali Bank: Disbursed Tk25 crore, restricted to a single entity (Bhulua Tannery).​
• Agrani Bank: Disbursed Tk75 crore, split between Apex Tannery (Tk45 crore) and Bay Tannery (Tk30 crore).​
• Janata Bank: Approved Tk60 crore, though a major portion is designated for general working capital.​
• Rupali Bank: Disbursed Tk0 in fresh credit, as its core clients have breached their statutory credit limits.​
• ​

Banking sector guidelines specify that 65% of these allocated funds must be used for running day-to-day operations, leaving only 35% directly available for spot-cash rawhide purchases during the high-demand Eid window.

In 2015, an average cow hide sold for Tk2,200 to Tk2,400. By 2026, those same hides are selling for just Tk700 to Tk900 in regional markets.

Adjusted for compounding inflation over the last 11 years, a hide worth Tk2,200 in 2015 should have a current value of roughly Tk4,180. This indicates a real-term loss in purchasing power of over 80%.

For the current cycle, the Ministry of Commerce fixed the price of salted cow hide at Tk62–Tk67 per square foot in Dhaka and Tk57–Tk62 outside the capital, setting a minimum floor price of Tk1,350 per piece.

However, historical data shows that state-mandated pricing floors rarely work on the ground.

Last season, actual market returns fell far below government targets, with some remote sellers forced to dump hides for as little as Tk200 to Tk500 due to a lack of competing buyers.

Core reasons driving market decline

Market analysts point to several deep-seated issues behind the structural decline of the leather sector.

In 2017, tanneries were moved from Hazaribagh to the BSCIC Leather Industrial Estate in Savar to build an eco-friendly export industry.

However, the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) is still not fully functional.

The CETP has a daily treatment capacity of 14,000 cubic meters, but during peak Eid operations, daily toxic waste output shoots up to 32,000–40,000 cubic meters.

The resulting overflow dumps untreated waste directly into the Dhaleshwari River.

Because of this environmental pollution, local tanneries cannot secure certification from the international Leather Working Group (LWG).

Out of roughly 160 operational tanneries in Bangladesh, only 6 to 8 hold LWG certification.

For comparison, India has over 240 LWG-certified facilities, Pakistan has over 50, and Vietnam maintains a significantly higher share.

Lacking LWG compliance, local tanneries are barred from selling directly to major European, American, or Japanese consumer brands.

This leaves the country dependent on Chinese buyers, who purchase semi-processed "crust leather" at heavily discounted rates. Consequently, export values that once averaged $1.50 per square foot have dropped to $0.60–$0.65.

The market value of local leather is also being hurt by a decline in the quality of raw hides before they even reach tanneries.

A study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) revealed that 21% of all seasonal hides suffer from deep knife cuts, punctures, or disease scars, which instantly lowers their market grade.

Furthermore, data showed that 100% of individual sacrifice givers and 83% of seasonal grassroots collectors sold hides completely unsalted, accelerating rot during warm, humid weather.

To prevent a complete market collapse this season, the government has introduced several emergency measures, such as partially lifting restrictions on raw hide exports to create alternative demand channels, banning the entry of raw, unsalted hides into Dhaka for seven days post-Eid to protect regional processing, and distributing subsidized salt directly to madrasas and orphanages for immediate preservation.

The Department of Livestock Services trained over 15,000 professional and 23,000 seasonal butchers in proper hide-flaying techniques.

The need to fix these structural issues has become more urgent as Bangladesh graduates from the Least Developed Country (LDC) list.

While duty-free access to the European Union will continue until 2029 under transitional arrangements, the expiration of this grace period means local exporters will face import tariffs of up to 12% if they fail to meet global environmental compliance standards.

Failing to reform the sector before this deadline risks further isolating Bangladesh from high-value global footwear and luxury goods supply chains.

Required policy reforms

To stop the value erosion of this national asset, economists and industrial experts recommend implementing several immediate reforms, including completely upgrading and expanding the waste-treatment capacity of the Savar CETP to meet global standards, setting up a transparent, open-market export window for raw hides to break domestic purchasing monopolies, establishing regional, union-level hide collection and cold storage centers equipped with subsidized salt reserves, introducing digital tracking networks to trace hides from the initial slaughter point down to the final tannery floor, and encouraging private investment into high-value, diversified leather consumer goods rather than relying solely on low-margin crust leather exports.

Every year, the period leading up to Eid-ul-Azha sees a predictable round of high-level meetings, price declarations, and policy promises—yet the ground reality remains largely unchanged.

The leather industry is not just a seasonal marketplace; it supports millions of temporary jobs, provides essential funding for social welfare systems, and represents a major pillar of Bangladesh's export potential.

If the government can use the current phase of political stability to permanently fix the Savar treatment plant and open the market to genuine competition, the sector could recover.

Only then can the country restore a market where the proceeds from a single hide can successfully fund a community orphanage for months.​