Every year, like clockwork, Bangladesh's Eid-ul-Adha hide market stages an economic performance that puzzles economists and frustrates the faithful. In just 24 hours, nearly 9.1 million hides roughly 60% of the national annual supply flood the market in a ritual overflow that should generate massive economic and charitable value. Instead, the market collapses under cartel-like behavior, logistical chaos, and regulatory apathy. The orphans and poor, for whom this charity is intended, are once again left shortchanged.
Let's be clear, this isn't just a supply chain hiccup. It's a market design disaster where misplaced incentives, infrastructure gaps, and governance failures combine to turn charity into calamity.
A market with high value and higher vulnerability: The rawhide market is a national asset hiding in plain sight. With tannery demand estimated at 15.17 million hides annually and a value-add potential of 80%, this sector once stood among Bangladesh's top export contributors. But today, its potential is gravely underutilized.During Eid, tanneries and a handful of powerful exporters sit at the end of a long, fragmented chain of madrasa fundraisers, seasonal collectors, mosque committees, and charitable households. The result? A textbook monopsony few buyers, many scattered sellers, and prices determined not by competition but by collusion and silence.
From collusion to collapse: Why prices crashed again in 2025: Despite hopes tied to a new interim government, 2025 saw the hide market collapse once again. Cow hides in Dhaka fetched just BDT 650-800, while rural sellers received as little as BDT 400-500 well below the government's fixed price, which applied only to salted hides, not raw ones. Media reports suggest that a significant portion of goat hides failed to find buyers and were eventually discarded a sign of deeper market dysfunction. The government's short-term steps lifting the wet-blue export ban and distributing salt helped preserve some hides but failed to address core issues like collusion, regulatory failure, and logistical chaos. Once again, redistribution turned into exclusion.
Legal and economic consequences: From a competition law perspective, the hide market swings dangerously close to tacit collusion. A few dominant buyers are able to delay procurement or exploit coordination gaps to drive down prices.
The broader economic consequences include: Rotting hides due to delayed preservation; Untraceable transactions that evade taxation; Reduced export competitiveness due to low compliance and quality and Lost public trust in a system meant to support the most vulnerable.
Regulatory gap and market misalignment: On Eid's first day, at least two markets operate in parallel: one for salt-free raw hides, and another for salted hides. Yet, the government sets prices only for salted hides, which is to some extent misleading. Many downstream traders, unaware of this distinction, apply the wrong price benchmarks leading to systematic procurement errors and distorted incentives. The absence of clear and harmonized regulation has crippled both fairness and efficiency in this market.
Silence is not always golden: What's most troubling is the institutional silence. Despite political transition in 2024, no meaningful reform has followed. Political parties, both old and new, have avoided the issue. Civil society, human rights activities, religious leaders, and academia/researchers have grown increasingly quietwhen they should be demanding answers. When market dysfunction robs orphans and the poor, silence becomes complicity.
Not just a policy problem: Society must rescue the Eid hide market: This is not just a policy failure it reflects a deeper societal responsibility gap. Community leaders, mosque committees, and philanthropists must ensure that donated hides fulfill their charitable purpose. Religious sacrifice must not become economic waste.
The media, academia, and civil society must step up document market failures, demand transparency, and advocate for systemic reform. The dysfunction in the hide market also offers lessons for other seasonal markets livestock, paddy surplus, or festive tradingall equally vulnerable without structural safeguards.
A path forward: Whole-of-Society engagement: No single ministry or institution can solve this complex issue alone. A coordinated, all-hands-on-deck response is needed. Key steps include: Government must ensure policy continuity, digital traceability, and year-round planning; make CETP fully operational before the next Eid, BCC must investigate and act against collusive practices and play active role to develop the relevant market, Religious institutions must manage hides transparently and ethically, Media and civil society must sustain public pressure for accountability, Academics and researchers must provide data-driven policy support, Tannery owners must invest in environmental and market compliance, Banks and Financial Institutions- Explore the scope of financing and Political leadership must break its silence and lead decisively.
From ritual to reform: Eid-ul-Adha reflects spiritual generosity and economic redistribution. Yet, the hide market central to this tradition continues to falter under inefficiency, collusion, and weak governance. What, then, are we truly sacrificing? With bold reform, civic engagement, and institutional courage, we can transform this failing sector into a model of market justice.
Lessons from this monopsony-dominated market offer a blueprint for reforming other vulnerable sectors like Agriculture and Labor, where power imbalances persist. Making this market effective and efficient will not only honor the spirit of Eid but also advance a more equitable and resilient economy for all.
The writer is a legal researcher and policy analyst with a focus on competition law, market regulation in Bangladesh
