Before textiles & garments became the predominant industry, fi recrackers were the main product made in Macau, contributing most to local GDP.The fi rst factory was founded in Macau in 1881. In 1910, there were 7 factories, rising to 8 in 1922.In 1930, an offi cial report mentioned the existence of 10 factories, 7 in the city and 3 in Taipa. Those 10 factories generated a total production of MOP1 million, with exports valued at MOP1.2 million.In the 1930s, Macau was one of the most important centres of production of fi recrackers, exporting to Singapore, the Philippines, the USA and even – to a much lesser extent – to Europe.There are no numbers on the employees created by this industry but hundreds of women and children worked in it from their own homes, coiling the cards to produce the fi recrackers. Child labour, incidentally, was one of the arguments used to condemn this industry two decades later according to researcher and author Geoff rey C. Gunn.The number of factories continued to increase but with one major diff erence: following several explosions (particularly one in 1925) the government elected to install new plants in Taipa. In the following years almost everybody in Taipa worked in this industry, to such an extent that local people were known by the smell of sulphur, a raw material essential to the manufacture of fi recrackers. Records show eight plants in Taipa in the 1930s and six in the 1970s. Kwong Hing Tai occupied one-fi fth of the total land area of Taipa, employing more than one-third of the total population in its plant, and produced three million fi recrackers a day, according to researcher and former fi recracker worker Albert Lai.In 1953, production hit 3 tons, worth MOP 7 million – without doubt, the most important product made in Macau for export.But in 1952, the USA, the largest market for fi recrackers and incense, banned its importation from Macau as part of its embargo on trade with China following the Korean War, when the industry was at its zenith. Exactly 20 years later the Chinese market was opened up following US President Nixon’s visit to the Mainland. Thus, Macau began to fall behind in competing against other lower-priced rivals .All this – combined with questions of safety and the attrac-tion of textiles & garments – led to the decline of the industry. In 1975, Governor Garcia Leandro told Macau Business, fi recrackers no longer had relevance. Nevertheless, the last factory, Po Sing, only closed his doors in the 1990s.
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