Tannery
Tannery transforms raw hides and skins into leather for manufacturing articles like shoes, bags, suitcases, belt, wallet, jacket and many other products. In the past, leather processing was done manually using certain indigenous methods.
The first tannery in Bangladesh territory was set up at Narayanganj by R P Saha sometime in the 1940s. It was later shifted to Hazaribag area of Dhaka, which eventually turned into a place packed with various tanneries. Before the [[Partition of Bengal, 1947|partition of bengal (1947), almost all the raw hides and skins available in East Bengal were exported to west Bengal, particularly to Calcutta and processed there. Development of tannery industry in East Pakistan started after the Partition with an influx of tanners displaced from India and subsequently, with the establishment of subsidiaries of some companies of West Pakistan. The tanning industry in East Pakistan and export of leather from the province were mainly in the hands of the non-Bengali people. A few tanning units, however, belonged to Bengali entrepreneurs but they were of cottage type and they used to process leather mainly for the domestic markets. Most non-Bengali tanners processed wet-blue and sent the product to West Pakistan where it was further processed and finished for producing different consumer goods. Till 1960, tanneries of East Pakistan used to process raw hides and skins applying salt and then drying them in the sun and the material thus developed could be preserved from putrefaction and was known as shaltu.
During the war of liberation in 1971 the non-Bengali tanners of Bangladesh left the country abandoning about 30 tannery units owned by them. After the war, the new government of Bangladesh vested the management of these units on a newly formed Tannery Corporation, which was expected to convert them into finished leather manufacture units. Unfortunately, the corporation did not serve the purpose because of lack of experience and other reasons including corrupt practices.
Later, the government relinquished the Tannery Corporation and handed over the management of most of these tanneries to Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC). Three of them were given to bangladesh freedom fighters welfare trust. Both the authorities had miserably failed to manage the tanneries. In 1982, the government transferred them to private entrepreneurs in pursuance of its general policy of disinvestment, which had allowed some enterprising Bengalis with little or no experience in the industry to start wet-blue production.
At present [2020], there are about 220 tannery units in Bangladesh of various capacity. Of them 190 were located at Hazaribag of Dhaka in only 60 acres of land. Until 1990, export was limited to wet-blue leather. In order to encourage manufacture of more value-added products, the government imposed ban on export of wet-blue leather in 1991. This gave birth to a new era in the history of the development of leather sector of Bangladesh. It was the beginning of manufacture crust, finished and split leather and its export. But still Bangladesh failed to draw desired attention from the companies of global brand to procure leather from Bangladesh in the absence of eco-friendly leather manufacturing.
With this end in view in the year 2016 tanneries have been relocated with the facility of modern Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at Hemayetpur, Savar covering 200 acres of land. Already 155 tanneries so far have been shifted in the Hemayetpur estate. International market for leather and leather goods are highly challenging and compliance is required at every stage of production process.
According to Bangladesh Tanners Association about 25000 workers and 150 technologists are working in different tanneries. There are about 1500 business persons engaged in the collection process of raw hides and skins to make it available at Posta, Dhaka (Wholesale centre). About 100 organizations are involved in supplying chemicals for use in tannery industry.
Bangladesh produces approximately 200-220 million sq feet of raw hiders and skins, about 85% of which is exported in crust, finished and split form. The rest is used for producing leather goods to cater to the domestic market. Leather is a traditional export item of Bangladesh. But export earnings from this sector could not indicate any predictable increase in the past. Since the production and supply of leather depend on the availability of livestock and demand of the meat, the total supply of leather cannot be increased in the short run, Therefore, the only way of increasing earnings from this sector is the production and export of higher value leather products for which international demand is growing. International market for leather is highly fluctuating, hence the earnings from its export. Until 2001, annual export receipts from this sector remained below taka one billion. But by 2017-18, the annual income from leather and leather goods export increased to US$ 519.91 million. Some reputed tanneries of Bangladesh are Dhaka Leather, Apex Tannery, Lexco, Karim Lather, Samata Tannery, Bay Tannery, Reliance, Kalam Brothers, AL-Madina, Millat, Progoti, Anwar, Amin, Crescent Kid Leather etc. [Belayet Hossain]
