VIRUDHUNAGAR: The Deepavali colours in the sky are yet to fade out for the fireworks manufacturers in Sivakasi as the industry has recorded a sales of around Rs 6,000 crore, which is 30% higher than the previous year figures. President of Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association (TANFAMA), Ganesan Panjurajan, said the cracker sale had been at its peak since the beginning of the year.
“The ban on joint crackers and using barium have pulled down around 70% of the firecracker production. In place of 500 firecracker products, this time, only 150 products were manufactured. However, the public have shown interest in purchasing 30% of the manufactured products,” he said.
Ganesan further said every state and union territory in the country, including Delhi NCR, has shown interest in purchasing products. “Due to the ban imposed by the Delhi government on bursting crackers, the crackers that were already purchased in the state were sold to nearby states,” he pointed out, adding 96% of the products manufactured had been sold out.
Owner of a retail cracker shop in Srirangam, P Srinivas, whose family has been in the business for the last 40 years said fancy crackers and sky shots saw a surge in sales this Deepavali.Srinivas had bought the crackers from Sivakasi and had set up the cracker shop 10 days ahead of the festival of lights. “The sale was at its peak in the last two days of Deepavali,” he said.
The shop owner said his profit increased by 20-30 % this time around as compared to that of the previous year and the interest in purchasing the crackers post Covid-19 has relatively increased among the people.
Meanwhile, sources said the price of fireworks has witnessed an increase of around 40-50% when compared to the previous year.