The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Mosquito-repellent products move quickly off shelves

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Sunday, Oct 08, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Mosquito-repellent products move quickly off shelves

Staff Reporter

The fear of chikungunya and dengue has pushed up the demand for mosquito coils, sprays, repellents and even meshes

WELL-EQUIPPED: A customer buying a mosquito repellent at a shop in Hyderabad on Saturday. - -PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

HYDERABAD: Dealers and manufacturers of mosquito-repellent products in the twin cities are thanking mosquitoes these days.

With the chikungunya and dengue scare gathering momentum and both being attributed to free reign of mosquitoes, demand for mosquito coils, sprays, repellents and even mosquito meshes has increased manifold in the twin cities.

So much so that some local dealers and manufacturers of mosquito coils are pointing out that they are unable to meet the huge demand because they never thought it would go up all of a sudden.

Production increased

"The demand for coils has doubled in the past two to three months because of rampant mosquito breeding in twin cities. Sometimes, we are unable to meet the orders placed by our dealers. So we are trying to increase the production from 5,000 coils a day to 10,000," says Gyaneswar, proprietor of KGR Coil Manufacturers, Kukatpally.

P. Samudi of the Balanagar-based Pavi Engineering Enterprises points out that awareness created by the State Government has also played a major role in the spurt in sales.

"The business is very good these days. In fact, most of the local coil and repellent dealers have increased their orders," says Mr. Samudi.

Shop-owners in parts of the twin cities also reflect the same opinion when it comes to sale of anti-mosquito products.

"Earlier, a carton of 500 coils would take a week to be sold off. However, these days one carton is sold in three days. We have placed orders with our dealers to increase the supply because we feel the scare of dengue and chikungunya might linger around for quite some time," says T. Mukesh, a shop-owner in Monda Market.

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