The turn of the year is likely to get louder again: after the pandemic lull, significantly more fireworks are being imported into Germany again. However, the pre-Corona level has not yet been reached.
So far this year, Germany has imported almost four times as many fireworks as in the same period last year. Like that Federal Statistical Office announced, around 24,400 tons of fireworks were imported from January to September 2023. That is 283 percent more than in the same period last year.
In the first three quarters of 2022, just under 6,400 tons of rockets, firecrackers and other fireworks items were imported; before that, the number was even lower due to the sales ban during the pandemic. With a share of 95 percent, almost all of the fireworks imported in the reporting period came from China. Chinese imports to Germany have consistently accounted for more than 90 percent of the pops imported over the past 20 years.
Fewer imports than before the pandemic, more exports
However, the pre-Corona level has not yet been reached again, according to the statistics authority. Compared to the quantity imported in the first three quarters of 2019 (29,800 tons), imports of fireworks fell by 18 percent from January to September 2023. In the first three quarters of 2020 there were even more imports than in the previous year, but with the lockdown and the ban on firecrackers, imports collapsed in the last quarter.
Meanwhile, the export figures have clearly increased – not only compared to the previous year, but also to 2019. 4,900 tons of firecrackers and rockets were delivered abroad from Germany between January and September, in the previous year it was 2,700 tons and in 2019 exports amounted to 2,000 tons. With a share of 73 percent, the Netherlands was the largest buyer of fireworks manufactured in Germany, ahead of Italy (11 percent) and Belgium (8 percent).