Bad times for firecracker industry

MALOLOS CITY – Bulacan’s pyrotechnics industry is feeling the hard times as production costs continue to grow and the government intensifies its drive against the use of powerful firecrackers.

Officials of the Bulacan-based Philippine Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc. (PPMDAI) said yesterday their low output this season explained why their products easily sold out.

“Production for 2008 was very low. That’s why it was all sold out in Bocaue despite the campaign of the DOH,” PPMDAI chairman Celso Cruz said, referring to the campaign of the Department of Health against the use of firecrackers.

He said low production translated to low profits.

The situation was worse for pyrotechnics retailers outside Bulacan, said Vimmie Erese, PPMDAI president.

“Those in Metro Manila and other parts of the country had it worse because almost 50 percent of their products went unsold,” Erese told The STAR over the phone.

Erese also said rains before and during New Year’s Eve dampened interest in firecrackers.

She also said the high cost of raw materials prompted manufacturers to lessen production.

She said that in January 2008, a 50-kilo bag of potassium nitrate only cost P1,250, but by June, its selling price went up to over P5,000 per bag.

“The prices of raw materials were very high that’s why sales increased by roughly 10 percent only even if costs had doubled,” Erese added.

Manufacturers complained that the increase in sales was almost negligible compared with sales figures in 2007, when explosions razed a number of pyrotechnics stalls in Bocaue on New Year’s Eve.

They also said the high cost of raw materials forced almost half of the licensed pyrotechnics manufacturers to close shop, and that those who braved the economic crunch borrowed money to keep their businesses going.