Clamour for hand sanitisers leaving manufacturers breathless
Possibly the most sought items today are hand sanitisers and alcohol-based hand rubs, once rarely used, as persons scramble to safeguard themselves from the lethal coronavirus.
And the situation has gotten so dire that you have to knock counter after counter of convenience stores and pharmacies to get either of these.
"It appears that I will need to check pharmacies in the areas," said Farhad Alam, an undergraduate student of computer science of Bangladesh University, after failing woefully to secure even one hand sanitiser after calling directly into ten pharmacies on the Satmasjid Road.
At Jafrabad, half of a kilometre from where Alam wanted the hand sanitiser, another man in his 20s wore a frantic look: he was returning home empty-handed after looking into all five pharmacies in his neighbourhood for the no-rinse hand wash.
After official disclosure of detection of coronavirus in Bangladesh on March 8, the demand for the things have spiralled out of control for even the manufacturers and importers of the things.
Most health officials and disease specialists say among the finest preventive measures against the coronavirus or any other outbreak is frequent washing of hands, using soap and water to scrub fronts, backs and between fingers for at least 20 seconds.
If soap and water aren't available, medical researchers say, then hand sanitiser may be used, as long as it contains at least 60 % alcohol and the gel is squirted onto the hands and rubbed briskly all over them for approximately 20 seconds.
Regardless, people can't stop searching for for hand sanitisers.
Even after ramping up production and distribution hand sanitisers 're going out of stock when the stores are putting them from the shelves, said Jesmin Zaman, head of marketing of Square Toiletries, which sells 'Sepnil' brand hand sanitisers.
Square is now making 10 tonnes of hand sanitisers daily and supplying to the marketplace without any delays.
Per month ago, Square could sell at most one tonnes of hand sanitisers.
"Even in January, five to 10 lakh people in Bangladesh were alert to hand sanitisers at best."
But suddenly, millions of folks were looking for that.
"We've the machinery. We are increasing our production capacity with as much recycleables and packaging materials we are getting," Zaman said.
The correspondent got hand sanitisers in 7 out of the 17 establishments visited in Dhamnondi. Plus they were mostly in the supermarket chains.
And save for just one, the brands which were found available were less known even a week ago. Some have started making hand sanitisers recently, although some firms want to make the right margins from the newfound home based business for the hygiene item.
Yet fast imports aren't possible as flights to and from import destinations such as China have grown to be infrequent.
"My supplier informed that he would struggle to take any responsibility in the event of flight delays," said Abdul Mannan, who was simply trying to get some hand sanitisers from China. He runs a store in the port city of Chattogram.
He said imports by sea is time-consuming and companies are not sure that the heightened demand would persist after the supply arrives.
But imports have increased recently, he said.
Yet supply has been too low to meet up amplified demand.
Khulshi Mart, a standalone supermarket in Chattogram, could not sell 240 bits of hand sanitisers in a year, said its procurement manager Mohammad Aurang Zeb.
"However in the last 10 days, we sold a lot more than 5,000 of them. The demand is indeed high that people can't meet them," he said.
Khulshi Mart is selling one hand sanitiser to each customer so that you can ensure an increased number of people will get the hygiene product for personal and family protection, exactly like many supermarkets in Dhaka.
In Lavender in capital's Gulshan area, hand sanitisers were kept behind the till, and one customer is allowed one.
A shopper was seen requesting five small packs of hand sanitisers at the counter of Wellbeing Pharmacy at Dhanmondi. But he was sold three.
In the Unimart store next to the pharmacy, no hand sanitiser was seen on the shelves. "It really is all finished for the present time," said a salesperson of the store.
However, hand washes were available on the shelves. But there is a tag that read that only two pieces per customer were allowed.
The salesperson said the store will put a limit readily available sanitiser to one each customer once supply comes through, she said.
"By rationing the items, we will be in a position to serve a lot more customers," said Rasad Kabir, manager of businesses of Unimart's Dhanmondi branch.
A similar scenario was seen at Meena Bazar and Shwapno on Dhanmondi 27.
No hand sanitiser was on the shelves. You can get limited quantity but from behind the counter.
"We are doing this in order that all will get and one cannot hoard the scarce items," said Sabbir Hasan Nasir, executive director of ACI Logistics that owns the supermarket chain Shwapno.
Shwapno, the country's biggest supermarket chain, can be restricting the quantity of 50ml bottles of alcohol-based hand rub, Hexisol, for each and every customer.
Nasir also urged persons in order to avoid buying excess levels of other essentials amid the panic.
"We want to assure that you will see no crisis of products," he said, adding that Shwapno will also consider limiting the sales of rice to avoid stock piling.
Alcohol-based hand rubs are mostly found in hospitals by medical professionals, said M Mohibuz Zaman, managing director of ACI Healthcare.
"The demand experienced the roof. We are now delivering five times a lot more than before," he said.
ACI, which makes up about more than 90 % of the hand rub market, increased its production capacity to create nearly 100,000 bits of hand rubs daily.
"We are trying our best, however the demand is just too much to meet."
All manufacturers have expanded their capacity.
"The pharma industry is wanting to produce whenever you can and trying to acquire an increased amount of raw materials," Zaman added.
Seven local manufacturers are making hand rubs now, according to Mostafizur Rahman, director of the Directorate General of Drug Administration.
They are making hand rubs in three shifts now after DGDA director general held meetings with the manufacturers.
Currently, more than 5 lakh bits of hand sanitisers are created daily.
"We have given permission to four more companies to create sanitisers and hand rubs and in addition gave import permission to seven firms. As we've satisfactory manufacturers and production capacity, the crisis that is created temporarily will be over," said Rahman, adding that DGDA will also fix the prices.
