MALAYSIA: Business at the BDF medical latex factory making condoms is good due heightened awareness about aids and sexual diseases

Record ID: 517606

  • Title: MALAYSIA: Business at the BDF medical latex factory making condoms is good due heightened awareness about aids and sexual diseases
  • Date: 29th November 2001
  • Summary: (L!2) SENAI, JOHOR, MALAYSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) GV CONDOM STORE EXTERIOR SLV PEOPLE LOOKING AT CONDOMS INSIDE SHOP VARIOUS OF CONDOMS ON DISPLAY IN FORM OF LOLLYPOPS SCU PACKETS OF CONDOM ON DISPLAY SLV WALL OF PACKAGED CONDOMS FOR SALE WIDE OF EMPLOYEES AT BDF MEDIACAL-LATEX FACTORY TESTING CONDOMS FOR PINHOLES USING ELECTRONIC METAL TUBES SMV EMPLOYEE TESTING CONDOMS / PAN DOWN TO CONDOMS BEING DEPOSITED INTO REJECT/ PASS BINS AFTER TESTING SCU CONDOMS AFTER TESTS SMV , WOMEN SORTING CONDOMS GV PACKAGING MACHINE GV PINK CONDOMS BEING WASHED SCU SOAPY CONDOMS SCU/SMV OF FACTORY WORKER TESTING PINK CONDOMS SCU CONDOM BEING PREPARED FOR TESTING VARIOUS, EMPLOYEE OPERATING TESTING MACHINES AND CONDOM BEING INFLATED (3 SHOTS) SCU OF TESTING APPARATUS WIDE OF CONDOM BEING STRETCHED IN TESTING MACHINE SMV EMPLOYEES WATCHING THE CONDOM TESTS /PAN TO EMPLOYEES SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BDF MEDICAL LATEX MANAGING DIRECTOR KARL-HEINZ RATHSAM SAYING: "Around the world, condoms are the number one contraceptive method. And especially the Asian region, they are, beside the sub-Saharan Africa, one of the regions majorly affected by AIDS/HIV. So the steps taken by Dr Mahathir and the other leaders in the ASEAN meeting are very pro-active steps. Condoms are the most affordable and just right measure." VARIOUS, WORKER TESTING CONDOMS WITH SALINE SOLUTION (2 SHOTS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BDF MEDICAL LATEX MANAGING DIRECTOR KARL-HEINZ RATHSAM SAYING: "South American countries are a little bit more fun related that other countries. The French market, the standard condom of our brand is a pink condom. The other markets are more on the transparent side. They all have basically the same varieties but somehow everybody has got a unique island where their favourites are." VARIOUS, CONDOMS BEING SORTED BY WORKER (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS, OF WOMEN PUTTING CONDOMS INTO BOXES (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SENAI, JOHOR, MALAYSIA
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA5Q4VSPWPW0OGJGM7XT946VMRO
  • Story Text: The global economy may be slowing down but business at a condom company in Malaysia is brisk due to heightened awareness about AIDS.
    The manufacturing lines at the BDF Medical Latex condom factory in Malaysia's southern Johor state is running around the clock these days to help keep the world supplied with the contraceptives.
    The factory which is owned by the German firm Beiersdorf AG churns out 60 million condoms a year and this year, sales grew by 33 percent to o16 million ringgit (4.2 million U.S.
    dollars) helped by growing AIDS/HIV worries.
    Factory workers make a variety of condoms at the factory located on Malaysia's border with Singapore. Each piece goes through stringent and rigorous checks to ensure there are no leaks.
    The thinnest condoms produced at the factory is 0.028 milimetre thick.
    New products are inflated and stretched to make sure they are up to quality standards.
    BDF Medical Latex officials said in addition to growing concerns about AIDS worldwide, leaders of Southeast Asia after Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently began promoting condoms to prevent AIDS infection and this drive was helping to increase demand.
    "Around the world, condoms are the number one contraceptive method. And especially the Asian region, they are, beside the sub-Saharan Africa, one of the regions majorly affected by AIDS/HIV. So the steps taken by Dr Mahathir and the other leaders in the ASEAN meeting are very pro-active steps. Condoms are the most affordable and just right measure," said BDF Medical Latex managing director Karl-Heinz Rathsam.
    Malaysia is one of the world's largest producers of rubber latex, a material used to make condoms and surgical gloves. It is also home to the world's third largest condom industry, next to Thailand and India.
    Medical Latex currently produces 20 percent of the condoms exported from Malaysia and these are made to cater to suit different tastes.
    "South American countries are a little bit more fun related that other countries. The French market, the standard condom of our brand is a pink condom. The other markets are more on the transparent side. They all have basically the same varieties but somehow everybody has got a unique island where their favourites are," Rathsam said.
    On the home front however, he said marketing condoms was a bit difficult in mainly Muslim Malaysia as advertisements are banned in local newspapers, radio and television.
    Moreover, Malaysians are also shy about buying condoms in shops.
    AIDS campaigners have said the government should also make it compulsory for sex workers to insist on using condoms, -- such a policy has been successfully implemented in Thailand.
    But for Malaysia to do this, it would have to acknowledge that it does have a sex industry.
    About 1.6 million people in Malaysia and other southeast Asia countries, the world's worst affected region after the sub-Saharan African states.
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