Tightened budgets hurt fawanees market
RAMADAN is already half over, but the fawanees (colourful lanterns traditionally displayed during the holy month) are still standing forgotten on the shelves. This year, it seems the rising prices of food and other consumer goods have left the Egyptian family with little money to spend on fawanees.
Abdu Mustafa, a fawanees wholesaler in Bab Zuweila, believes that the situation is even worse than the weak sales this year indicate. Chinese imports have taken over the fawanees market, Abdu explains, "Because our manufacturing industry is incompetent, we depend on selling Chinese products. And we can't even compete with the Chinese lanterns, not in quality or productivity or anything. The raw materials over there are much cheaper. The Egyptian lantern is also made of steel which can easily hurt a child playing with it. The Chinese one is plastic."
He also complained of generally lower demand for his merchandise. "At this time last year you wouldn't find any lanterns left, they would've been sold by now. No one is buying," he said.
Abdu also observed "people seemed like they were buying lanterns because they felt obliged to, not out of a joy for the month of Ramadan." He attributed this to economic pressures and the rising prices of both essential commodities and other traditional Ramadan products, which may be adversely affecting expenditure on less essential goods.
