A cow worth Tk30,000 could fetch Tk1,200 to Tk1,500 for its hide two decades ago. During the Eid-ul-Adha this year, even the hide of a Tk1.5 lakh cow is struggling to get the same price.
The collapse reflects a deeper failure in Bangladesh’s leather industry, where tanneries without Leather Working Group certification are forced to sell processed leather far below its potential global price, industry people said.
Almost 70 per cent of the exported processed leather now goes to China at low prices, as most Bangladeshi tanneries remain shut out of premium Western markets due to compliance gaps.
Before the Western compliance pressure intensified, tanneries received better prices for exported leather. Local wholesalers and aratdars also collected raw hides with far greater confidence.
Eid-ul-Adha was once a one-day battlefield for seasonal traders. Groups of young people competed in neighbourhoods to collect hides, often turning the trade into a show of local strength.
The competition has faded. A large section of sacrificial animal owners now donate hides directly to local mosques, madrasas and orphanages.In the capital’s Banasree area, private job holder Touhidul Islam said collectors offered only Tk700-800 for the hide of a cow bought for Tk1.4 lakh.
“We donated it to a nearby madrasa,” he told TIMES of Bangladesh.
If they sold the hide, the money would have to be divided among the Qurbani partners before being distributed among the poor, creating trouble for a very small amount, he said.
Across different areas of the capital, mosque and madrasa authorities were seen collecting hides from door to door on behalf of their charitable institutions.
Some institutions also set up small booths in front of their premises, offering tea, biscuits and water to people donating hides.
Bangladesh Tanners Association President Md Shaheen Ahmed said around 90 lakh animals were sacrificed last year, but the number may fall by at least 10 lakh this year.
Based on the hides collected across the country, he estimated that around 50 lakh cows were sacrificed last year.
The number may drop to around 45 lakh this year as prolonged inflation and income pressure squeeze household spending, he said.
Bangladesh’s tanneries collect at least half of their annual raw hides during Eid-ul-Adha, making the festival the most important supply season for the sector.
The commerce ministry increased the government-fixed price of salted raw hides by Tk2 to Tk3 per square foot for this Eid in 2026.
Under the official rate, cowhide has been fixed at Tk62 to Tk67 per square foot in Dhaka and Tk57 to Tk62 outside Dhaka. Goatskin has been set at Tk25 to Tk30 per square foot across the country, while the rate for female goatskin has been fixed at Tk22 to Tk25.
But the official rate has barely reached many sellers.
Sharif, a garment sector official who sacrificed an animal in a remote village of Gouripur upazila in Mymensingh, told TIMES of Bangladesh at 1pm that local collectors offered only half of the government-fixed rate.
He also donated the hide to a local madrasa.
In Rampura, madrasa teacher Masudur Rahman was collecting hides free of cost on behalf of a local madrasa.
The tendency to donate hides to mosques and madrasas instead of selling them to seasonal commercial buyers has remained unchanged from last year, he said.
After collection, a party will come in the afternoon and take the hides from the madrasa to arats at a negotiated rate. The money will help cover religious education and food costs for poor students, Masudur said.
The government moved all tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh to the Savar Leather Industrial Estate in 2017 after years of Buriganga River pollution caused by unplanned tannery operations.
But the central effluent treatment plant at Savar is still not fully effective, preventing factories from obtaining Leather Working Group certification.
Shaheen Ahmed demanded immediate steps to make the treatment plant fully operational.
“It is extremely unfortunate that a national resource like leather is not getting its fair price only because a treatment plant has not been made operational,” he said.
Leather exports fetch less than what it used to do in 2010 for Bangladesh, according to the Export Promotion Bureau.
