Safety matches are a consumer item
of everyday use. There are about twenty
safety match factories located mostly in
the southern part of Bangladesh. In 1984-85
the country produced 940 million gross
boxes of safety matches (Anon. 1985).
This quantity is enough to meet the entire
demand of the country. At present there
is no export of this commodity presumably
because of scarcity of suitable timber species
and strong competition in the international
market. The traditional species
used in Bangladesh have different unattractive
tints.