Hide traders in Khulna’s Sheikhpara Bazar are now forced onto the open road to buy and sell raw hides, as the absence of any permanent market space and years of unpaid tannery debt bring a once-established trading hub to the brink of collapse.

The area, known locally as Sheikhpara Chamrapatti, once housed about 10 shops and 35 traders. Most of those shops have now closed because landlords refuse to rent premises for the hide trade, traders said, leaving the handful still in business to salt and stockpile skins each year on open roads.

“We’re doing business on the road out of compulsion,” said Babar Ali, a trader. “We had shops, but one by one they shut because landlords won’t keep hide shops. We desperately need a permanent market.” The roadside trading produces a stench and blocks pedestrian movement, he added.

Kartik Ghosh, general secretary of the Khulna Rawhide Traders’ Association, said the market has lost its character. “This place had a tradition, now it’s completely gone. Big wholesalers used to operate here. Now only a handful of us are barely surviving.” Ghosh said he himself stopped buying and selling hides two years ago because of the downturn.

Association president Abdus Salam Dhali warned the trade was facing ruin. “Traders borrow money to buy hides, but after supplying tanneries, millions of taka remain unpaid and are never recovered. Many have been left destitute.” The association demands a permanent market and government-fixed pricing to stabilise the trade.