The Malaysian rubber glove industry is making efforts to enhance its visibility in growing African market. Of late, Africa’s demand for rubber gloves is increasing considerably. It is mostly used by the medical personnel to ward off contagious diseases such as Ebola outbreak.
Even now Malaysia has a decent export of rubber gloves to Africa, having exported US$ 100 million to 55 countries in 2018. But exporters in Malaysia feel that the potential for export is more given that the continent has 1.2 billion people and to top it
22 diplomatic missions of African countries operate in Malaysia.
Of the US$100 million worth of rubber glove exports, close to 72 per cent or US$72.2 million was in the form of medical gloves. The rest was in the form of natural rubber gloves and surgical gloves. The top African importing countries for the items were Egypt, South Africa and Kenya. The latest figures for 2018 indicates that rubber gloves usage in Africa was as low as only two pairs per person, compared with China, 5, Brazil 12, Europe 50 and the US a the top at 75. With the rising healthcare awareness coupled with new healthcare norms, the demand for rubber gloves in the continent is bound to grow.
The global demand for rubber gloves this year is expected to go up by 12 per cent to 300 billion gloves with a projected export revenue of US$4.95 billion. Malaysia is expected to have the largest market share of about 63 per cent ahead of Thailand (18 per cent) China (10 per cent) and Indonesia (three per cent).
