Drop in export of safety matches

Export of safety matches suffered a drop, owing to uncertainty in market. Currency fluctuation is one of the concerns and export remains price competitive in world markets, according to J. Devadoss, secretary, South India Match Manufacturers’ Association, Kovilpatti.

There was a sharp fall in export to Africa, the largest buyer of Indian matches, last year, he told The Hindu here on Thursday.

Around 80 per cent of exports of match boxes in bundles would normally be shipped to African countries. An average overseas shipment of about 140 to 150 containers of finished goods a month would be made to countries abroad.

Normally, 15 containers of match boxes would be shipped to Tanzania in a month, but over the past months it came down to just three containers.

Among the exports, the minimum volume of sulphur-free matches which contained fire smoke was being exported to European countries. Moreover, many importing countries became self-sufficient with their own production. He said hike in duty drawback for exporters and reduction in loan interest rate could boost exports.

With high production cost which included expensive raw materials and power tariff, the stakeholders could hardly compete in the export market, M. Paramasivam, president, National Small Match Manufacturers’ Association, Kovilpatti, said.

Pakistan was emerging as a competitor for export of matches. Since matches could be manufactured at low cost, its market was stable. In the recent past, many export orders had been diverted to Pakistan, he said.

D. Krishnamurthy of Kovilpatti, an exporter, said the market crisis deepened globally and heavy production well beyond consumption demand caused slump in exports. Currency devaluation in Africa also contributed to the market uncertainty, he added.

Sources in an exporting company stressed the need for inclusion of India into the incremental incentive scheme for safety matches, which became the focus product.

Besides, many agencies from Africa had been contemplating on adopting manufacturing techniques to launch production on their own.