Manufacturers worldwide have either had to temporarily shutter their doors or, at a minimum, slow production during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that could lead to a shortage of a number of products in the moving months, including condoms.
According to Bloomberg, Malaysia-based Karex Bhd. just restarted production last Friday in three of its plants, and only half of its workforce is back. The company makes one out of every five condoms worldwide, but has not made any for more than a week.
As AVN reported earlier this month, adult distributor Paradise Marketing is seeing a big upswing in condom sales.
“As COVID-19 grips the world, we can only assume that people are taking extra precautions,” said Paradise Marketing owner Dennis Paradise. “We couldn’t help but notice that our condom order numbers have increased in Europe and Latin America—and gone sky-high in the U.S.—in only a manner of days.”
Bloomberg said demand for condoms is growing at double digits, while production has slowed not just in Malaysia, but also in China and India.
“We are going to see a global shortage of condoms everywhere, which is going to be scary,” Karex Bhd. Chief Executive Goh Miah Kiat told The Guardian. “My concern is that for a lot of humanitarian programmes … in Africa, the shortage will not just be two weeks or a month. That shortage can run into months.”
In the meantime, adult retailers can stock up while there is still supply at Paradise Marketing, which carries top prophylactic brands such as Lifestyles, Trojan, Kimono, Beyond Seven, Durex, Crown and Okamoto, in addition to their signature Paradise condoms.
