ISLAMABAD: Various religious and philanthropic groups are losing interest in collecting skin and hide during Eid days as the tanners were not interested in low quality hides of sacrificial animals.

Following strict implementation of protocols by the authorities, a large number of religious groups, particularly proscribed entities, have been restricted from going door to door to collect hides.

According to tanners, inexperienced butchers and amateurs did not properly peal the skin of the sacrificial animals, and left behind cuts and pieces of meat. As a result, the quality of the hides is compromised.

Besides, quality of a hide deteriorates faster in hot and humid conditions.

All these factors have led to a decline in the skin and hide business. The traders, mostly based in the old quarters of Rawalpindi city, are witnessing a decline in the number of skin and hides coming to them.

Tanneries prefer high quality hides, skins

“Another factor is the high fuel cost this year; shifting the hides in small quantities is no longer viable, which was why people were no longer interested in collecting and selling them,” said Muazzam Rana, a skin and hide trader on Imambara Road in Banni area.

He said the rates offered by the tanneries were very low because the cost of doing business had increased due to high transportation charges and costlier electricity bills.

Besides, the skin and hide collection has lost competition due to restrictions by the civic authorities on buying and storing them on roads in Rawalpindi. Currently their trading has been limited to indoors only. As a result there are no seasonal players in the market during Eid days and only those who are in this business all year round, purchase the skins.

Mohammad Ali, a worker affiliated with the trade, said he had been in this profession for more than three decades, and he had seen an improvement in standards.

“If we do not apply salt on the skins, it starts to rot after four hours due to hot and humid weather,” Ali said and added: “A rotten skin increases labour work because the damaged parts have to be cut off, and the tanneries do not pay the right price for it too.”

Traders bought hides of a cow at the rate of around Rs1,500 per piece this year, which was slightly higher than last year, where as goat skin was priced at around Rs225.

Sheep skin, on the other hand, was of no value, with gypsies buying them for Rs50 a piece. They buy it for personal use and use traditional methods to tan them as they rot at a faster rate in this weather.

Agents of tanneries buy only healthy and clean hides for approximately Rs2,200 per piece, whereas goat skin is bought at around Rs60 per square feet. The average area of a goat skin is around eight square feet.

The traders criticised tanners, saying that they only bought selected items. Prime skins were bought by tanneries in Sialkot, which has export-based industry, followed by tanners in Karachi and Sheikhupura.

The Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), the key body of tanners in the country, too expressed its concerns over the quality of raw material they got during Eid days.

“The cost of production is very high this year due to high value of dollar and the key components in our business are chemicals and dyes which are imported,” said Agha Saiddan, former PTA chairman.

“We face up to 11pc damage due to low quality skins and hide,” he added.

The PTA has around 800 members but only 50 units will meet the new protocols of the European Union that includes environment, social, work ethics and other compliances by the deadline of December 2023.

Mr Saiddan said: “This is why we have to be cautious about everything including selection of raw material.”

He, however, added that low quality skins and hides were taken by the tanneries in Kasur, Gujaranwala and some very small localised tanners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who sell their leather to local industries which produce footwear or trade them in Afghanistan.

With declining supply of skins and hide coupled with enhancing industry standards, tanneries too are closing down in Pakistan, Mr Saiddan added.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2023