Product Description: Surgical gloves are thin gauge latex products used as coverings for hand and with a sheath for the fingers. The gloves are mainly used by surgeons, physicians and other people in the health care profession. They are used as a preventive measure against infection or transfer of diseases from patients. Since the onset of HIV/AIDS, the use of surgical gloves has become extremely necessary by all medical and health personnel in all health care places.
Rational: disposable surgical gloves are made from natural or artificial rubber latex. The production or manufacturing of these gloves does not require a sophisticated technology and highly skilled manpower. It is an ordinary product which can be produced using ordinary technology and people with ordinary industrial skills. However, surgical gloves are not produced in Ethiopia; and the country pays a substantial amount of foreign exchange every year for importing surgical gloves. This product can be produce in the country and if it is not produced in other parts of the country, the Amhara Region should take the initiative to start producing this essential product.
Market Potential: In 2004/2005, there were about 29,000 health personnel working in state owned health care institutions throughout the country; and the numbers of health institutions public and private were 2415. One can imagine the number of surgical gloves being used by the health personnel in all these institutions every day. If we assume that one state health personnel uses, on the average, five pairs of surgical gloves per day, total daily consumption of these gloves is 145,000 pairs. If we assume that health personnel in the private sector are 20 percent of the number of public health personnel, there are about 5800 are 5800 of them and their daily consumption of gloves is about 29000. Total daily consumption of disposable surgical gloves was, therefore, 174,000 pairs. This translates into annual consumption to about 63,510,000 pairs. (This estimate does not include disposable surgical gloves used by people outside health care institutions). All these gloves are imported every year. Anybody who has seen disposable surgical gloves will wonder why these products are not made in our country? Probably the answer is investors are not aware of the opportunity. This project idea is to trigger the interest of potential investors for the Project.
The future demand for surgical dressing is expected to grow in light of the increasing expenditure on the health sector and the corresponding population growth. Thus, it is conservatively assumed to grow at about 3% per annum. Accordingly, the projected demand is given in table below.
Projected Demand for Surgical Dressing
Source of Raw Material: Both the artificial and the natural latex (rubber) from which disposable surgical gloves are to be manufactured will be imported. If the rubber plantation project which was started in the former province of Illubabor is still alive, there will be a possibility of harvesting natural latex from the plantation.
Production Process & Technology: In the manufacture of disposable surgical gloves from latex, there are three major processes- straight dipping, coagulant dipping and heat sensitive dipping. Of the three, straight dipping is the most widely used for producing gloves. The following activities are undertaken in this process.- Preparation of the compound which makes up the gloves, washing and drying (formers). Formers are made of porcelain, glass, stainless steel or aluminum. This process is followed by dipping of formers into compounded latex coagulating, drying and vulcanizing the film formed on the formers and then stripping off.
Estimated Investment: For a production capacity of about 5 million pairs of disposable surgical gloves per year, investment requirement will be building 600 m2 at Birr 1500/m2 = Br. 900.000
Plant & machinery and W. capital Br. 800,000 = Birr 1,700,000.
7. Location: Bahir Dar, Combolcha.