By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, Nov 10 (IANS): Even as uncertainty continues to loom over the domestic market for the Indian fireworks industry over alleged pollution, a silver lining is seen with importers from Europe, the US, Africa and other parts willing to move away from China to India, said top industry officials.

Firecracker industry officials told IANS that importers in Europe, America and other countries are looking at India to diversify their source away from China post the Covid-19 pandemic.

"They buy about Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore worth of firecrackers from China annually. They can source our entire production with ease. The enquiries are for different kind of products," Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA) President Ganesan Panjurajan told IANS.

According to fireworks industry officials, safety matches are being exported from India to African countries in good numbers.

An official in Tuticorin Port told IANS that good number of safety matches shipments are being shipped to African countries.

The fireworks industry officials want the Indian government to look at their sector and the new opportunity that has come up and sort out the issues so that exports of firecrackers can happen out of India.

Panjurajan said in January importers from overseas had come to look at the possibility of sourcing fireworks from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu.

"Time has come for the industry to look at exports. With our crackers turning green-emitting less smoke-our products may get good traction overseas," Panjurajan said.

Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the country's firecracker production, and has 1,070 firecracker units located in and around the city.

About 3,00,000 workers are directly employed whereas another 5,00,000 workers are in the allied sectors.

The firecrackers manufactured in factories in Sivakasi are valued at around Rs 2,500 crore, while the retail sales total around Rs 6,000 crore. This year, production may be just total around Rs 1,800 crore.

"There seems to be a change in the Chinese firecracker industry. Areas where there used to be lot of units are now housing non-firecracker manufacturing units," A.P. Selvarajan, Director, Sri Kaliswari Fireworks, told IANS.

According to Selvarajan, the future is green crackers and now there are good enquiries from overseas markets like Europe, US and other countries as they are coming out of China.

"If exports begin, then big companies will shift their focus towards capturing the exports markets. Further Indian security agencies could also look at our facilities and try to source some of their needs from us," Selvarajan said.

According to him, already some products used for training the security personnel were supplied from Sivakasi to some security agencies.

However, shipment of firecrackers is a major issue for the industry players owing to high cost and transhipment issue is also there.

"For normal items the shipment cost per container is about $1,200 whereas in the case of firecrackers the cost goes up to about $12,000 per container. We have orders from Europe," Selvarajan said.

Panjurajan, who heads Sony Fireworks said his own company has an export order worth about Rs 48 crore, but non-availability of containers at affordable rates has hindered the supplies.

"We have our own warehouse in Durban in South Africa but were not able to send our stocks there," Panjurajan said.

According to him, at times export orders are fulfilled by getting the products made in China under the Indian brand.

Panjurajan said post Diwali, the TANFAMA officials plan to approach the central government seeking assistance to export their products.