Romantic Appeal Or Business Charm?

- Neha Dewan

Don’t be surprised if the next time you walk into a big branded home décor store in New York, pick up a designer candle placed on the shelf and find that it sports a ‘Made in India’ tag. While Chinese candles continue to flood markets across the western world, a good number of scented and decorative candles adorning homes and offices in US, UK and Australia are now increasingly being sourced from India.

Consider this: In FY2016, India exported $27.80 million worth of candles to US – a market where candles are used in 7 out of 10 households (as per the National Candle Association, USA). Well, this was a 31.34% y-o-y jump. In the same year, India exported candles worth $9.96 and $2.89 million to UK and Australia reporting y-o-y increases of 22.81% and 47.44%, respectively. Ireland, Sweden and Italy were some of the other big markets where India’s exports of candles witnessed impressive growth in FY2016 over the previous year.

Unfortunately, despite such impressive growth numbers, candle exporters from India are still struggling to counter competition from Chinese exporters who continue to rule the roost as far as candle exports are concerned. Candle (HS Code: 340600) exports from China stood at $594.29 million in CY2016, surpassing the likes of Poland and US, while India’s exports during the same period stood at $50.53 million.

THE GREAT DIVIDE