Kochi: It is time to change your opinion that India has no role in this World Cup in Brazil other than sitting on the sidelines and enjoying the show. If Pakistan makes the much-acclaimed balls for the Cup, India markets devices to add to the pleasure of the people there.
The products are nothing but condoms and the Kerala-based miniratna HLL Lifecare sent some 15 million pieces to Brazil in March ahead of the World Cup in one of its biggest shipments to make the biggest show on earth safe for many.
Brazil, home for 200 million people which also has a thriving sex industry, incidentally is the largest importer of condoms in the world, perhaps the largest user of the contraceptives as well, and HLL alone supplied 700 million condoms to that country in the last two years, according to company sources.
Read: Are you using your condom the right way? Find out
As per estimates, Brazilian government, despite opposition from the predominant Catholic Church, buys on an average one billion condoms a year and the demand has gone up this year by around 20 per cent.
Going by the same estimates, HLL has a market share of 35-40 per cent in condom sales in the country. In fact, HLL, a public sector unit of the union government, had stepped up its presence in Brazil about two years ago and now even has an office in Sao Paulo, the largest city in that country, to coordinate its marketing and sales operations for South and North America.
Apart from directly marketing its ‘Moods’ condom to Brazil, the company also supplies unbranded condoms to other companies there and several others. HLL, which sells its condoms to 115 countries, has earned Rs 133 crore worth foreign exchange in 2013-14. The company, which manufactures 40 lakh condom pieces a day and 1.2 billion a year, aims to augment its production capacity to two billion pieces a year soon, the company sources said.
