Prices of hides fall 50pc as pandemic hits leather demands

LAHORE: The prices of raw hides and skins of sacrificial animals crashed, as this Eid-ul-Azha witnessed the lowest ever rates due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and muggy and rainy weather which quickly damaged the hides.

Hides of cows, calves and bulls traded at an average price of Rs600/hide ($3.60) across the country. The price ranged between Rs400 and Rs800 per hide in the different markets, as compared to last year’s average rate of around Rs1,400 during Eid days.

Goat hide was traded between Rs100 and Rs120 (60 to 70 cents) per skin as compared to last year’s average price of Rs200 per skin. Similarly, sheep skin price recorded at only Rs50 (30 cents) this year as compared to last year’s Rs120 to Rs150 per skin.

Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) former chairman Agha Saidan said big tanners backed out from buying due to global recession in the wake of COVID-19 which adversely affected leather product buying globally, and reciprocally brought down its production.

Number of tanneries closed their operations due to COVID-19, while exports of leather products were affected adversely due to the pandemic, which compelled tanners to stop operations and close production.

“The tanneries are already holding carryover stocks of previous years too and facing liquidity issues as well,” Agha added. Decline in hides and skin prices also hurt charity organisations, which collected skins and hides annually on Eid. This year almost Rs1.75 billion worth of hides and skins were traded, which was Rs3.4 billion (almost 50 percent) lower than last year’s traded volume worth Rs5.15 billion.

According to the tanners estimates, there was an almost 28 to 30 percent decline in slaughtering this year due to COVID-19 and its resultant adverse impacts on the economic situation of the country and the people’s buying power.

Further, almost 20 to 30 percent increase in prices of sacrificial animals also affected the total number of sacrifices. According to PTA estimates, last year 8.1 million animals were slaughtered on Eid-ul-Azha, including almost three million cows/calves/bulls, four million goats, one million sheep and 100,000 camels.

This year it reduced to two million cows/calves/bulls, three million goats, 800,000 sheep, and 60,000 camels. ­