Amazon Condoms To Preserve Forests and Reduce Imports in Brazil

(Picture: Acre news agency.) The Brazilian government has inaugurated yesterday the first factory to produce condoms with latex from Amazon trees. The company, called Natex, is located in Xapuri, in Acre State (Northwest Brazil).

According to Acre's news agency, these will be the first condoms to be produced with natural materials from seringai trees. This initiative will help preserve the Amazon by ensuring the sustainable exploitation of the materials, and will reduce the amount of imported condoms to the country, which are distributed freely to fight AIDS as part of a national campaign. Brazil is the largest importer of condoms in the world, the Health Ministry informed according to BBC Mundo.

Via BBC Mundo (in Spanish)

Initially, the factory will produce 100 million condoms a year, creating income for 700 resident families (who make latex from the natural material), and sourcing from a product that's abundant in the forest. Xapuri holds a population of about 15,000, 160 of which will have a direct job in the factory, a Brazilian blog informs.

The same source says the condoms have been already tested and are to be approved by the National Sanitary Security Agency.

Acre's news agency also informed that the Natex condoms are 10% more cost-effective to produce and that native latex is also more resistant for having 50% less minerals than cultivation latex.

For other resources of sustainable 'love', don't forget to check our How to Green your Sex Life guide.

::Original news release (in Portuguese) ::BBC Mundo article (in Spanish) ::Additional information (in Portuguese)