Over two lakh pieces of hides of sacrificial animals were collected in the port city during Eid this year.

Only four to five tanners, including HRC, Rich Leather, Madina Tanneries and Orient, were procuring a small portion of hides allowing the rest to go to other districts, mainly to the capital, sources said.

In absence of any fixed price and monitoring by the government, a well-organised syndicate of the tanners and hide traders fixed a price lower than that offered by those who came from outside the district.

It deprived the field level hide collectors as well as the small traders of profit when the large traders and tanners eye a big profit, sources said.

"We had a good collection of hides this year and expected a good profit.

But, we were deprived of the expected price," said Jamal, a seasonal hide collector from the city's Lalkhan Bazar area.

Small hide traders of arats (where raw hides are collected from traders and preserved with salt) also feared a dull business.

"We are now selling the hides to the traders coming from outside as they offer a better price. After that we will be left with no other options other than selling them at a lower price as we cannot keep the salt mixed hides for long," small traders of Aturer Depot area said.

Aturer Depot is the main sale centre of salt mixed hides where most of the city's 165 arats are located. Besides, there are two sale centres at Pathantuli and Chaktai.

The fixed price by the syndicate, however, had a little impact on the large traders of the arats who were rushing for Dhaka with their hides for a better price.

On the other hand, the local tanneries were not in a hurry to procure and rather seemed to cling to the price they fixed.

An official of Madina Tanneries preferring anonymity said, "We cannot buy hides at a price that will cause us suffer financial loss."

Asked about the higher price offered by the traders from other districts, he said that as the demand was higher in Dhaka and other places, they could offer better price.

On the contrary, a small tanner said on condition of anonymity that they could not offer higher price as they themselves do not procure hides and were compelled to wait for the leftovers after the procurement by the traders coming from outside the district.

Poor procurement by the local tanners will raise the price of finished leathers of local tanneries and affect the local leather-based industries afterwards.

Extortion and smuggling forced the tannery and lather business to decline fast in Chittagong. Leather traders here had become the hostage to the extortionists and hoodlums.

The number of tanneries here came down to some 18 due to this whereas Chittagong once witnessed a thriving business in this sector. There was a brisk operation of some 50 tanneries at Mohora with some 400 leather and leather-based industries.

The check on smuggling of hides this year offered a ray of hope for revival of the leather industries here but the reported foul play by the syndicate dashed all hopes, sources observed.