Analysis and Studies - Products analysis

Candles: import and export

With different sizes, colors, scents and shapes, candles today are used for their fragrance and as a decoration in many environments.

Primal forms of candles, rushlights, were supposedly invented by Ancient Egyptians. It was the Romans, however, who started to wrap papyrus around twine and dip it into tallow to make the first wicked candles, followed by other civilizations that replaced papyrus with local plants and products.

In 1834 the invention of a molded candle production machine made it possible to industrialize the production process. Despite that, the birth of the lightbulb in the same century brought to a decline of the candles market for more than 100 years.

In the 20th century new technologies made it possible to produce higher quality candles and their popularity took off, preserving that success until our days. In fact, in 2020 candles were the world's 595th most traded product, with a total trade of $3.38B.

Between 2019 and 2020 the exports of Candles grew by 5.02%, from $3.22B to $3.38B. Focusing on 2020, candles were mostly exported by Poland ($620M), China ($618M), Vietnam ($384M), United States ($210M) and Netherlands ($199M). In the same year, the top importers were United States ($711M), Germany ($448M), United Kingdom ($318M), Netherlands ($204M) and France ($124M).

Between the same two years, the exports of candles grew the fastest in Vietnam ($81.4M), Canada ($70.1M), Czechia ($46.3M), Poland ($15M) and France ($11.8M), while the fastest growing importers were United States ($163M), Germany ($33.8M), Saudi Arabia ($19.2M), Poland ($10.3M) and United Kingdom ($9.59M).

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