Eid Ul Adha: Boosting Pakistan's Economy Through Hide Preservation

Eid ul Adha is more than a religious event; it's a chance for Pakistan to enhance its economy. By improving hide preservation and handling, we can prevent losses from sacrificial animals, boost leather exports, to transform a recurring seasonal loss into a national prosperity.

RURAL INNOVATION

Syed Bassam Akhtar

6/10/2026

a bird sitting on top of a piece of wood

Every Eid-ul-Adha, Pakistan experiences one of the largest seasonal economic movements in the country. Livestock markets overflow, transport networks surge, butchers work around the clock, and billions of rupees flow from urban centers to rural households. Yet beneath this celebration lies a largely invisible economic loss that repeats itself year after year: the destruction of animal hides through poor handling, delayed collection, and inadequate preservation.

The scale of the issue is enormous. In 2026, Pakistanis sacrificed an estimated 7.47 million animals during Eid-ul-Adha, according to the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA). The festival generated economic activity worth nearly Rs. 950 billion. Among these transactions were hides valued at approximately Rs. 8.67 billion, a major raw material input for Pakistan’s leather industry, one of the country’s important export sectors.

But much of this value never reaches tanneries in usable form. In many neighborhoods, hides are left exposed in heat, folded incorrectly, contaminated with blood and dirt, or collected hours too late. By the time traders reach them, many skins have begun to decay, sharply reducing their quality and market price. What should become export-grade leather for shoes, gloves, jackets, and sports goods often ends up as low-value scrap or complete waste.

The problem is not a shortage of animals or demand. It is a breakdown in the collection chain. Small charities compete for hides without proper storage systems. Many volunteers lack basic knowledge about curing and preservation. Salt, the simplest preservation tool, is often unavailable in sufficient quantities. Municipal waste systems become overwhelmed, and transport delays worsen spoilage.

This is a classic example of value leakage in a rural-urban supply chain. Pakistan already possesses the livestock base, the tanning industry, and international market access. What it lacks is coordination. A modest investment in public awareness, salt distribution, cold-chain logistics, and organized hide collection could save billions of rupees annually. In economic terms, Pakistan is not losing hides because it lacks resources; it is losing them because the system fails in the crucial first 24 hours after slaughter.

From Valuable Asset to Waste: The Six-Hour Race Against Time

One of the least understood facts about Pakistan’s leather industry is that the value of an animal hide begins to disappear almost immediately after slaughter. A freshly removed hide is a highly perishable biological material. If it is not preserved properly, bacterial decomposition can begin within six hours, especially under the hot and humid conditions that typically prevail during Eid-ul-Adha. Since the festival now falls during Pakistan’s summer and monsoon months, high temperatures and moisture create ideal conditions for bacterial growth, accelerating the deterioration process and rapidly reducing the commercial value of hides.

Fortunately, preserving a hide is neither complicated nor expensive. The most effective method involves applying coarse rock salt to the flesh side of the skin as soon as possible after flaying. Experts recommend using approximately 5 to 8 kilograms of salt per hide and applying it within two hours of slaughter. This simple process draws out moisture, suppresses bacterial activity, and extends the storage life of the hide from a few hours to nearly a month. Such preservation provides sufficient time for transportation, collection, and processing by tanneries without significant quality loss.

Unfortunately, this basic practice is often neglected. Across many cities and villages, hides are commonly left exposed in open spaces, charity collection camps, Madrassa compounds, and roadside collection points for long periods without proper curing. In many cases, volunteers responsible for handling hides have little or no technical training in preservation methods. Hides are frequently stacked improperly, folded while still wet, or left under direct sunlight. Poor skinning techniques also contribute to the problem, as inexperienced butchers often leave deep knife cuts and holes that reduce leather quality and market value.

The consequences are severe. Industry estimates suggest that between 20 and 30 percent of hides collected during Eid-ul-Adha suffer substantial quality deterioration each year, resulting in significant financial losses for charities, traders, tanneries, and the national economy.

The irony is particularly striking because Pakistan possesses one of the largest leather industries in the region. The sector contributes substantially to export earnings through the production of leather garments, gloves, footwear, and accessories sold in international markets. Yet despite having millions of sacrificial animals available annually, domestic shortages of high-quality raw hides force some manufacturers to import skins from countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand. In effect, Pakistan loses valuable local raw material through poor post-slaughter management and then spends precious foreign exchange to replace what could have been preserved at a fraction of the cost. This represents not only an avoidable economic loss but also a missed opportunity to strengthen one of the country's most important value-added export industries.

The Missing Link in Pakistan’s Hide Collection System

Pakistan does not suffer from a shortage of hide collectors. In fact, few countries can match the scale and reach of the volunteer networks that become active during Eid-ul-Adha. Religious seminaries, mosques, welfare organizations, and charitable foundations mobilize thousands of volunteers to collect sacrificial hides from homes, neighborhoods, and community slaughter points. These organizations have earned public trust over decades and play an important role in raising funds for education, social welfare, and humanitarian activities.

The challenge, however, lies not in collection but in preservation and quality management. Most volunteers involved in hide collection are dedicated community workers rather than leather industry professionals. Their primary objective is to gather as many hides as possible, not necessarily to ensure that each hide retains its maximum market value. As a result, many collectors are unfamiliar with the technical requirements of hide preservation, including proper salting, storage, transportation, and handling procedures.

A hide may appear intact to an untrained eye, but its commercial value can decline dramatically within hours if it is exposed to heat, moisture, or bacterial contamination. Similarly, improper skinning techniques can leave deep knife cuts and holes that permanently reduce leather quality. The difference between an export-grade hides and a low-value scrap skin often depends on a few simple practices: careful flaying, immediate salting, protection from direct sunlight, and timely transportation to processing facilities.

Unfortunately, many collection centers lack access to preservation materials, trained personnel, cold-storage facilities, and technical guidance. This is not a failure of the volunteers themselves but a failure of the broader support system. With proper training programs, awareness campaigns, and basic preservation resources, charities and madrassas could significantly reduce hide losses and help transform millions of rupees in wasted value into additional resources for education, welfare, and national economic development. The potential exists; what is missing is the knowledge and infrastructure needed to unlock it.

From Rot to Revenue: A Practical Path Forward

Here’s the good news: this problem is entirely solvable without building expensive factories or importing foreign technology. Countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia already face similar Eid-related hide surges, and they have developed low-cost, high-impact systems that Pakistan can adapt immediately. The solution rests on three simple pillars, none of which require billions in infrastructure spending. First, Pakistan needs a relentless public education campaign launched well before Eid. The government, working alongside the Pakistan Tanners Association and the Ministry of Information, should flood television channels, radio stations, social media platforms, and mosque loudspeakers with one clear, memorable message: “Salt your hides within two hours. Five to eight kilograms of rock salt rubbed directly on the flesh side. Save Pakistan’s leather.” This is not complicated science; it is basic preservation that any household can follow. Second, every major charity collection camp whether run by madrassas, the Al-Khidmat Foundation, or local mosques must have a dedicated salt distribution desk. Local municipal corporations can subsidize industrial-grade rock salt so that volunteers never face the excuse that they lack funds to buy salt. The cost of providing salt is negligible compared to the millions of dollars in leather value that currently rot away. Third, Pakistan’s major cities should establish temporary, shaded municipal abattoirs during the three days of Eid. Instead of chaotic backyard slaughters that produce deep knife gashes and unsanitary conditions, these centralized stations would feature clean concrete flooring, professional trained flayers who know how to remove a hide without cutting the grain, and on-site processing lines where salt is applied immediately or hides are moved into basic cold storage. Centralizing the slaughter in this way transforms a chaotic neighborhood event into a controlled, quality-assured process. These three interventions, public awareness, salt access, and temporary abattoirs, require no advanced technology. They require only planning, coordination across government agencies, and the political will to treat Eid hides as the multimillion-dollar national asset they truly are. The return on investment is staggering. If Pakistan saves just half of the 20 to 30 percent of hides it currently loses every Eid, that will instantly add tens of millions of dollars to the export economy, reduce the need for expensive hide imports from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and push the leather sector closer to the billion-dollar export mark. This Eid, Pakistan has a choice: watch another fortune melt away or finally act.

Conclusion

Eid-ul-Adha is far more than a religious celebration; it is one of Pakistan’s largest annual economic events. Yet every year, a significant portion of the value generated through sacrificial animals is lost because of poor hide preservation, inadequate handling, and weak coordination across the collection chain. The tragedy is not that Pakistan lacks animals, tanneries, or export markets. Rather, it lacks the awareness, training, and basic infrastructure needed to protect a valuable national asset during the critical hours following slaughter. Simple measures such as proper skinning, timely salting, improved storage, volunteer training, and organized collection systems could dramatically reduce hide wastage and increase returns for charities, communities, and the leather industry. Preserving animal hides is not merely a technical issue; it is an economic opportunity. By treating Eid hides as a strategic resource rather than a byproduct, Pakistan can strengthen its leather exports, reduce unnecessary imports, generate additional income, and transform a recurring seasonal loss into a source of sustainable national prosperity.

Please note that the views expressed in this article are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of any organization.

The writer is a DVM student at UVAS Lahore, Pakistan with a focus on livestock byproduct utilization and export economics. and can be reached at bassamakhtar015@gmail.com

Eid Ul Adha: Boosting Pakistan's Economy Through Hide Preservation

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