Retail Chronicle Issue 6 (1 - 15 November)

They continue selling Chinese pop-pops but,
fake labels of only made in India to attract
unaware consumers. We can’t deny, they offer
more variants than desi trio (phuljhadi, anar and
chakri). Even kids love to buy new modifications
with amazing sounds.
Let’s talk numbers…
Indian firecracker industry is the second biggest,
for but obvious winner China which
manufactures the largest crackers across the
world. Around ₹1500 crore worth of crackers are
illegally imported every year in India. This year in
spite of the ban, sale of Chinese crackers
doubled to 40% which led to shrink of sale of
local industry products by 25%. The Chinese
firecrackers been 20-40% cheaper in prices over
local ones. These figures clearly depicts, no
matter how many health drives we run, for
Indians it’s always been the Cost.
Is cost the only factor…
The prices and loss to local industry is not the
only factor driving Government to enforce a ban
on Chinese crackers. The key ingredient
potassium chlorate/ perchlorates is the
dangerous chemical which on mixing with high
amounts of Sulphur turns fatal. It leads to skin
irritations, breathing issues, bronchitis, kidney
and nervous damages.
Its substitute potassium and sodium nitrates
are expensive, hence local industry (Sivaski
which is Hub of cracker industry in India)
products are priced higher. The chemical
potassium chlorate in turn bursts faster with
more colorful sparks and more distinct
sounds, the reason being preferred over desi
crackers. But the amount of noise and air
pollution is severely higher.We can only hope
that the awareness among customers’
increases and we all have a safer, healthy
festival of light.
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