Sri Lanka's fireworks industry sees lower demand this year

Sri Lanka's ageing fireworks industry has little to cheer this festive season, with sharply rising raw material costs, labour shortages and bad weather conditions frustrating production and sales, manufacturers said.
This year’s festive period was the worst season for fireworks as sales came down by 80 per cent, head of Rawana Fireworks Negombo - Anton Fernando said.
He said that the production of fireworks was also hampered due to bad weather conditions that prevailed in Negombo and surrounding areas since September this year.
Returns of large stocks of unsold firecrackers have also been increased with traders complaining of low quality standard in production process, he said adding that the reason for this was water seeping into raw material and finished products at their small store rooms during heavy rain. (Bandula)