Mosquito menace has brought ample scope for mosquito repellent brands, boosting their sales manifold in the capital, with dengue taking its toll on the city dwellers with deadly consequences.
While the death toll of dengue is still largely limited to the capital, the deadly fever has already spread to different districts in the country, stoking fear that more casualties may take place in far flung areas in the coming days.
All types of mosquito repellents such as coil, spray, cream, gel, liquid vaporizer have seen their demand gone up in the capital’s retail shops.
“Since dengue broke out and its occurrence has been rising, the sale of mosquito repellents has witnessed a robust growth in recent weeks”, said Abul Kashem, a shopkeeper in the city’s Dhanmondi area.
Kashem says at the beginning of this month he used to sell 2/3 mosquito repellent products a day, which now shot to 8 to 10.
“Mosquito repellent business is good now, as dengue phobia has gripped city dwellers with increased presence of mosquitoes everywhere,” he adds.
Not just relying on the city corporation’s anti-mosquito measures to combat mosquito biting, city dwellers are buying different types of mosquito repellents to protect themselves from mosquito and dengue.
Spot visits of groceries and super shops found that aerosol spray, one of the popular mosquito repellent sprays, is selling more compared to other kind of repellents.
ACI’s Aerosol insect spray and square’s Xpel aerosol have been found in high demands among consumers compared to other brands.
Dhaka resident Rezaul Rahman bought eight refill packs of a company’s liquid vaporizer from a Shwapno outlet at Panthapath.
Describing the reason for purchasing eight refill packs together, he says he bought extra four packs as use of mosquito repellents has increased in recent months due to overwhelming mosquito presence day and night in his house.
“Since we are at risk of dengue fever, there is no chance to stay a single day without mosquito prevention”, he says.
Asked, Shahida Begum, a resident at Farmgate area, says there is no way only to rely on the city corporation’s measures against mosquitoes.
“In fact there are questions about the effectiveness of insecticides sprayed by the city corporation. We used to find mosquitoes at night but now we are facing mosquito bites during day time as well," she vents her frustration.
“So, we are doing what we can do, using mosquito repellents to keep our homes safe, as the presence of mosquitoes has increased manifold hampering our everyday life," she says.
Shameem Ahmed Jaigirder, general manager operations of Meena Bazar, says the sale of mosquito repellents in June was up by 25 percent and as of Jul 20 the they witnessed a staggering 40 percent growth respectively compared to the same periods last year.
“Generally at our different outlets, we sell the products of ACI, Godrej, Good Knight, Eagle, Finish etc," he informs.
Iqbal Hussain, head of business of Shwapno, says that as of Jul 20 this year, their sales growth of mosquito repellents rose by 121 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year.
He says Shwapno at its different outlets sells products of different brands including ACI, Square, Godrej and Reckitt Benckiser.
Mazharul Islam, brand manager of Square Toiletries Ltd, says that they primarily market their own products through distributors, and received reports of enhanced sale of mosquito repellents.
“The use of mosquito repellents has increased as well as queries from customers have also increased about the use of our products as people have become more conscious about the dengue fever," he adds.
Khairul Islam, area manager of Dhaka zone of Godrej Household Products (Bangladesh), says their recent sales have increased compared to previous months.
“As children are the worst sufferers due to dengue fever, we are going to sell our Godrej Good Knight Fabric Roll-On personal mosquito repellent product at half of its tag price very soon," he states.
“We have an agreement with Shwapno to sell our product from their outlets and hopefully customers will get our discounted mosquito repellent items within this week”, he says.