Surgical glove makers urged to step up quality for exports

With an aim to improve the quality of Indian surgical gloves to gain competitiveness in the global market, the Rubber Council along with the Bureau of Indian Standards has conducted a training program for manufacturers.

Opening the training programme, Jessy MD, Director, Rubber Research Institute of India, stressed the need to price products competitively without compromising on quality to be globally competitive. Industries from Thailand and Malaysia dominate the global market. She said marketing quality products at attractive prices could bring Indian manufacturers to the forefront of the international glove market.

She added that the training aims to equip local manufacturers to take advantage of the huge potential in the surgical glove manufacturing sector and help obtain better latex prices for farmers.

Mohammad Ismail, Senior Director and Head of Indian Standards Bureau, Kerala Branch, said that the capsule courses are organized at regular intervals and are product specific to provide quality control personnel of the industries with the latest requirements of Indian standards. Participants will have hands-on hands-on sessions in testing raw materials – natural latex concentrate preserved with ammonia, and disposable surgical latex gloves.

On the sidelines of the job, said Sibby Varghese, Joint Director, Rubber Board Business line That India is the second largest importer of surgical gloves after the US, there is a need to increase the number of local manufacturing facilities, from 20 strong, with the help of government subsidies.

He said Malaysia is the largest producer of surgical gloves, using more than 70 percent of its production from natural latex.

Representatives from surgical glove manufacturers in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh participated in the training programme.