Bangladesh’s government plans to adopt a comprehensive roadmap this month to revive the country’s ailing leather sector, aiming to lift annual export earnings to between $10 billion and $12 billion from levels that have stagnated near $1 billion for years, Industries Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir told parliament.
Muktadir, who also holds the commerce, textiles and jute portfolios, said the roadmap is intended to make the leather industry, currently the country’s second-largest export sector after ready-made garments, more competitive globally and environmentally sustainable. He was responding to a starred question from opposition lawmaker Md Rafiqul Islam Khan in the Jatiya Sangsad. Read Here
The minister’s remarks add fresh urgency to a target he has repeated in various forms since May, as Dhaka looks to diversify an export base still overwhelmingly dependent on garments, which account for roughly 85% of total shipments. Leather exports have remained largely flat at around $1.10 billion to $1.15 billion annually over the past three years, according to figures Muktadir has cited in parliament, despite the country possessing one of the world’s larger raw hide bases.
Officials have blamed the sector’s underperformance chiefly on the incomplete relocation of tanneries from Hazaribagh to the Savar industrial estate, a move launched in 2017 to modernize operations and improve environmental compliance. Muktadir told lawmakers this week that Bangladesh currently utilizes just 0.26% of its leather potential, and that production and exports could rise by 12 to 14 times if long-standing constraints were resolved.
Central to those constraints is the Savar Central Effluent Treatment Plant, which the minister has said is functioning well below its designed capacity, treating roughly 14,000 cubic feet of wastewater against an installed capacity of 25,000 cubic feet. Industry stakeholders and economists have warned that without handing CETP management to a competent professional operator, the sector risks falling further behind tightening global compliance standards that international buyers increasingly require before placing orders.
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As part of the roadmap, the government is prioritizing efforts to help tanneries secure internationally recognized Leather Working Group Gold certification, a credential increasingly demanded by global retailers as a condition for sourcing. Muktadir said the government is also taking measures to facilitate bank financing and cash incentives for leather entrepreneurs to help strengthen the sector’s competitiveness.
The minister highlighted waste management as another pillar of the strategy, describing a circular economy approach that converts tannery byproducts into industrial materials. He said Bangladesh J-W Animal Protein Company Limited has begun producing industrial protein powder from chrome shaving dust, while separate initiatives are underway to generate tallow and organic fertilizer from fleshing waste. Production and export of gelatin derived from raw cutting waste are also continuing, he added.
Bangladesh’s leather export trajectory has swung sharply over the past decade and a half. Shipments rose from $226 million in fiscal year 2010 to roughly $400 million five years later, but have since declined, falling to $183 million by fiscal year 2018 and further to $128 million in fiscal year 2025, underscoring the scale of the turnaround the government is now seeking.
Muktadir has floated the $10-12 billion target repeatedly in recent months, including at a May meeting with tannery owners and industry associations in Savar, where he said the sector could become a $12 billion export industry if the country’s annual leather production were fully utilized. He has also tied the leather push to a broader ten-year economic strategy, telling parliament in late June that reforms across the sector would help Bangladesh work toward becoming a trillion-dollar economy by 2034.
The government is also organizing regular awareness programs, seminars, workshops and capacity-building training sessions with tanners, Muktadir said, as part of continued engagement with the industry ahead of the roadmap’s expected adoption. No finalized version of the roadmap has yet been published.