The state owned Carew & Co (Bangladesh) Ltd has ramped up its production of hand sanitizers following the growing demand of it among the people, official said.
The company has been producing hand sanitizer since March 23 considering the usefulness of the item that helps prevent the spread of deadly coronavirus.
“We are increasing our production of hand sanitizer following the growing demand of it among the people,” managing director of Carew & Co (Bangladesh) Ltd Md Jahid Ali Ansary told the FE on Monday.
He said a total of 67,000 bottles of hand sanitizer have been produced as of Monday, while the retail price of each bottle (100 ml) is fixed at Tk 60.
The hand sanitizer is being produced with the ingredients of 70 per cent of ethanol, 2 (two) per cent glycerin, 27 per cent distilled water and the rest is food grade colour and flavour.
“We are now producing the hand sanitizer manually. We are expecting to get an automatic ceiling machine by today (Monday) which will help us to gear up the volume of our production,” Mr Ansary said.
He said they have also supplied the hand sanitizer in a bulk to different government offices.
Mr Ansary, however, said the hand sanitizer will be greatly available for commoners soon as they have stepped up their production.
Earlier, the authorities of Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC), which supervises Carew’s activities, announced last week that the common people could purchase hand sanitizer from 16 designated sales centres and the premises of the ministry of industries and BSFIC.
But most of the common people in the city still exactly don’t know the spots designated for the sale.
“I went to the premise of BSFIC to purchase hand sanitizer but failed as there was no such arrangement,” Md Abdus Sattar, a private service holder told the FE on Monday.
Chairman of BSFIC Sanat Kumar Saha said the prevailing restrictions on movement of vehicles and people as a whole have forced them to curtail the supply of hand sanitizer in the capital (most of the areas) and other parts of the country.
“We will be marketing hand sanitizer in the capital in a bigger scale after April 4,” he told the FF on Monday.
Saha said people will be able to purchase hand sanitizer from Carew’s sales centre located in front of the ministry of industries (MoI) at Motijheel area in the city.
The secretary of MoI Md Abdul Halim said the Carew & Co (Bangladesh) Ltd have supplied hand sanitizer to different government offices following its huge demand.
“It (hand sanitizer) will be available for people soon,” he said.
