Funeral Casket Maker Logs Surging Turnover; Owner Left Conflicted

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A funeral casket maker in the Bogor Regency reported an upsurge in turnover throughout the Covid-19 pandemic reaching the hundreds of millions of rupiah. Deliveries vary from individual orders up to company orders. 

According to one of the casket producers from Bogor Brand Creatif (BBC), Wiiwi, the company is able to produce up to 30 caskets on a daily basis with 20 readily available caskets daily with most orders coming from hospitals and funeral houses.

“Most orders come from hospitals for Covid-19 bodies,” said Wiwi to Tempo on Sunday, June 6. 

Wiwi revealed that the company had initially only served orders for caskets from the Greater Jakarta area but since offering services in online platforms, a plethora of orders have arrived from a broader region.

“I just took an order of 100 units to Banten related to Covid,” said Wiwi who sells caskets from Rp600,000 up to Rp6 million.

Prior to the pandemic that has claimed over 3 million lives worldwide, the funeral casket producer would on average only produce one casket daily. However, the turnover Wiwi is experiencing sparked a conflicting feeling; “To say it is a business turnover, well yes, but if we speak about humanity, I hope the pandemic will soon end and everything returns to normal.”

Read: 639 People in Jakarta Buried under COVID-19 Protocol

M.A MURTADHO