When wave of Coronavirus struck India, the sanitizer was seen as an essential product to carry in ones bag. It was used while shopping, travelling or even when someone enters the house. Big bottles of hand sanitizers were being placed at the entrance of shops, malls and offices and it became a habit to disinfect hands before doing anything else. People were also using this to disinfect door knobs, railings, phones and even chairs in public places. As such demand for sanitizers boomed and many players made the quick decisions to make the best of the opportunity.
Manufacturers in Gujarat, especially, jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to take advantage of the growing market. However, come 2022, the pandemics fading, and with that the demand for sanitizers has plunged, so much so that 90% manufacturers in the state have stopped production of the item.
According to the data from the Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) in December 2020, the state had 742 manufacturers of hand sanitizer with daily production as high as 2 crore litres. However, 90% of these manufacturers have stopped production.
Demand for sanitizer is currently very low and, with pandemic on the low, according to sources it is likely to remain so. Unfortunately, it was not just the big and organized players that started producing sanitizers in the state. Even the small-and-medium-sized manufacturers also invested in this category. These are likely the ones to be most impacted.
