Mon, Dec 03, 2001 page21

• Condom size doesn't matter, elasticity does

  • REUTERS
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  Dressed in blue, her head covered, a woman puts a freshly-made pink condom in a shiny metal tube to electronically test whether the rubber leaks.

  Another injects air into a condom to test how big it will get before bursting -- about the size of a toddler.

  

  A worker fills condoms with water for testing at a factory in Malaysia's southern state of Johor.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  A third worker places weights to the prophylactic to test how much it will stretch.

  Staff at Medical-Latex (Dua) Sdn Bhd, owned by German cosmetics group Beiersdorf AG, are working around the clock to keep pace with the growing global demand for condoms for safe sex following the AIDS scare.

  The plant in Senai industrial town in Malaysia's southern Johor state bordering Singapore is churning out 60 million condoms a year, with sales growing by 33 percent to 16 million ringgit (US$4.2 million) this year.

  "It's a recession-proof industry," Karl-Heinz Rathsam, a German heading the plant, says as he explains to visitors the A-Z of condom-making. "You may want to postpone buying TV or other big tickets items, not condoms," he said. "There is no real alternative to condoms."

  Beiersdorf is best known for its Nivea and Elastoplast brands.

  Mainly Muslim Malaysia, for its part, is the world's third largest condom maker after Thailand and India. Rathsam's company alone accounts for 20 percent of Malaysia's condom exports in value. He says branded and premium quality condoms were the fast-growing market segments in the business as people were wary of turning to cheap and less reliable condoms.

  In Hong Kong for example, a consumer group last year found that over a third of 27,000 condoms it examined failed the tear and leakage tests.

  In Rathsam's office, condoms of various brands are displayed on his work table. Among its own brands are "Harmony," "High Tide" and "Duo." Rathsam's products are largely meant for European and South American markets, and specific market niches.

  "South American countries are a little bit more fun-related than other countries," he said. "For the French market, the standard condom of our brand is a pink condom. The other markets are more on the transparent side."

  The company is also producing "fun" condoms such as coloured, ultra-thin and flavored varieties.

  "The young especially go for choice. People like to add some spice to their life," Rathsam said. "But we are not compromising on safety."

  The AIDS and lately the anthrax scare has boosted demand for both condoms and hand gloves.

  Malaysia is one of the world's major producers of rubber latex, used in making condoms and gloves. Rathsam says latex costs formed only 5 percent of his overall production costs. Medical-Latex officials say they are now producing condoms as thin as 0.028mm, which users say give added sensation. But it could also mean slower production. "The thinner the condoms, the slower the machine runs," Rathsam says. "It defies logic."

  One of the biggest battle condom makers face is in mainly Muslim Malaysia, where condom advertisements are banned in newspapers and on radio and television. Malaysians are also still shy about buying condoms in shops.

  AIDS campaigners say the government should also make it compulsory for sex workers to insist on condoms, a policy successfully implemented in neighboring Thailand. But for the country of 23 million people to do this, it would have to acknowledge that it has a sex industry.
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