International Journal of Horticulture 2015, Vol.5, No.11, 1
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11
3
Price of Output and Distribution of Match Splints
Trends in the Export Prices of Match Splints and
Constraints Faced by the Match Splints Industry
3.1 Match Splints and Matches Manufacturing
Units in Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu, there are industries dealing with match
splints manufacturing alone and some of the industries
have both Match splints manufacturing and matches
manufacturing facility. Though there were 39 units
available in Tamil Nadu, the author could not mobilize
the data separately on how many units are manufacturing
match splints alone and how many are manufacturing
both match splints and matches production under one
umbrella. However, in support of this article, the
details on number of match units available in Tamil
Nadu are accessed from the web sites and the details
are delineated in Table 1.
Table 1 revealed the details of number of match
splints and matches manufacturing units in Tamil
Nadu. There were 39 match splints and matches
manufacturing units in different pockets of Tamil
Nadu. Among these, Virudhunagar district alone
possess 24 units which are accounting for 61.54 per
cent to the total followed by Thoothukkudi district
possess 8 units which is accounted for 20.51 per cent
to the total match units revealing that the Southern
Zone of Tamil Nadu is blessed with 32 match units
accounting for around 80 per cent to the total match
manufacturing units. About 92 per cent of the total
production of matches in the country is being
produced in these places (The Hindu, 2015).
Matches produced in Tamil Nadu should be distributed
both in domestic as well as in international market.
For that there were 7 exporters whom are spread in
different districts. Southern Zone of Tamil Nadu alone
had 72 per cent of exporters and the North Western
Part of Tamil Nadu had only 28 per cent of exporters
of match splints produced in Tamil Nadu. India
exported match splints worth of $ 289976.
3.2 Sources of Raw Materials Supplied to the
Match Splints Industry
The Government is the most dominant player in the
forestry sector and directly own and manage about 97
per cent of all the forests. Whereas, more than 90 per
cent of India’s wood based products are manufactured
in private sector alone (Dhinman, 2011). Wood based
industries cannot survive without wood which is the
basic raw material for their operations. The gap
between its demand and supply is widening and the
scenario is fast changing with increased wood
requirement and reduced supply from the existing
sources. FAO reports revealed the status on
consumption of wood and wood related products,
indicates that in a decade of time (1999 to 2009), the
consumption is constantly increased. National Forestry
Action Program indicates a negative wood balance of
599.6 M cubic meter by 2015 (FAO 2009). Similar
estimates are given by Rai and Chakrabarti (1996)
while the ICFRE estimates were comparatively high
which is arrived at 1873 M cubic meter (ICFRE,
2003). However, the major raw materials used in the
production of safety matches are soft woods used to
make the match splints and boxes. Among several
species tried,
Ailanthus excelsa
found to be the best fit
and hence the details of sources of supply of raw
materials are analyzed and the details are presented in
Table 2.
Table 1 Match Splints and Matches Manufacturing Units in Tamil Nadu
Sl. No
Location
District
Number of Manufacturing Units
Number of Export Units
1
Chennai
Chennai
1 (2.56)
-
2
Gudiyatham
Vellore
2 (5.13)
-
3
Annur
Coimbatore
2 (5.13)
-
4
Sathur
Virudhunagar
6 (15.38)
2 (28.58)
5
Kovilpatti
Thoothukkudi
8 (20.51)
1 (14.28)
6
Sivakasi
Virudhunagar
14 (35.90)
-
7
Virudhunagar
Virudhunagar
4 (10.26)
-
8
Krishnagiri
Krishnagiri
2 (5.13)
1 (14.28)
9
Madurai
Madurai
-
2 (28.58)
10
Dharmapuri
Dharmapuri
-
1 (14.28)
Total
39 (100.00)
7 (100.00)
