Stuff Digital Edition

Long wait for headstones

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global trade has created shortages of every kind, and the American funeral industry is the latest to be hit. US engravers and funeral homes are struggling to secure granite from overseas for headstones, forcing grieving families to wait up to a year for markers to place on the graves of their loved ones. Much of America’s granite comes from India and China, and shipments from Asia are facing massive delays. ‘‘We started seeing delays initially of two to three months, and then it went to a year,’’ said Douglas Webb, treasurer of Great Basin Monuments and Engraving in Las Vegas. Demand for headstones is up by almost 200 per cent, as the postWorld War I ‘‘baby boom’’ generation starts to die and Covid-19 takes its toll.

World

en-nz

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281934546232711

Stuff Limited