Buenos Aires, 9 mar ( EFE).-the desire of the Argentine Government for boosting the national industry and reducing imports has become a sector as sensitive as the production of condoms.
The Secretary of Domestic trade, Guillermo Moreno, was commissioned to bring together two companies of condoms in Argentina, Kopelco, and Prime, to ask them to increase production to curb imports.
The issue of Fund, today told Efe Felipe Kopelowicz, Kopelco director, producer of the Tulip brand, is that the import of this product is carried by tender of the Ministry of health which usually attend Chinese or Malaysian companies that do not always offer all health guarantees required.
To avoid this problem and enhance local industry, the officer requested to two companies in the sector to increase 25 percent its production to meet domestic demand.
According to calculations of the sector, the local market consumes around 180 prophylactic million a year, a figure it yields an average of about 4.5 per person.
The bulk of the production of both companies is in the domestic market, but about 10 percent goes to Venezuela, Paraguay and Uruguay.
“We are studying the possibilities of increasing production, because requires investment and increase purchases of raw materials,” said the businessman, who announced they will again meet with the officer in a couple of weeks to arrange production plans.
Prophylactic Argentines are made with LaTeX imported from Malaysia although explained Kopelowicz, “value-added comes, checks and laboratory work, and that is pure Argentine labour”.
According to data from the sector, the bulk of buyers of condoms in Argentina – nine out of ten – man, more than half are under the age of 35 and is a large part of the sales kiosks.
The Government of Cristina Fernandez has launched a policy of protection of national industry that goes through a severe control on imports affecting virtually all economic activities. EFE
