The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Local face mask producers yesterday had a mixed reaction to the prime minister’s decision to ban the importation of non-medical rivals in a bid to stimulate domestic manufacturing.

Oscar Cerna, a local tailor, told Tribune Business that the move would make little difference if high unemployment and loss of incomes due to the COVID-19 pandemic left persons unable to afford to purchase them.

“You have to find the good price for the fabric,” he explained. “If they give me the job to do it I will, but it makes no sense to buy expensive fabric and nobody buys them. People sell the masks for $10 and up to $15. When the shops open and the fabric is here, then we can look into how much of the fabric we can get here and then see what it takes to make them at an efficient and cost effective rate.

“Who is going to buy masks when people don’t have any money? Everywhere in the world they have to wear masks, and if we don’t produce fabric here you have to get the fabric at a good price for us to sell the masks.”

Mr Cerna added: “The elastic you use for the masks costs $2 a yard. In America it costs $2 per yard. So now they are going to try to sell it for $5 a yard because everyone is buying, and that is going to raise the price. I can make nine to 12 masks out of one yard. This is just the elastic for the masks, and not the fabric to make the masks.

“You could have gotten the elastics from China cheaper, but the supply markets have been down so there is no idea on where you can get elastic cheaper. I know everyone wants to work but you have to make money. The Government would have to take it to the students or to the prisons to train people to make for cheap labour in order to make it work.”

Mr Cerna told Tribune Business last week that he can “make up to 1,000 masks in a week”. The importation of non-medical protective face masks was prohibited, effective from Friday, April 10, the prime minister announced last week. This does not apply to the importation of medical-grade masks for health care workers.

Dr Hubert Minnis said: “The move is an effort to protect the local mask manufacturing industry that has sprung up overnight as a result of the COVID-19 virus. We are working to protect and encourage small businesses, and to create and promote jobs. I am happy to see so many seamstresses and tailors involved in this growing industry.”

Howard Cunningham, owner of Howard’s Custom Tailoring, said of the import ban: “At least it gives people something to talk about in the economy. It gives people an opportunity to make a couple of dollars when they don’t have any jobs.”

Rejecting the notion that masks can cost as high as $15, Mr Cunningham added: “That’s high. If you find the material, I can charge $6 to do that. I don’t know where other people buy their elastic from and I am not sure what the cost of the elastic is as different fabric stores sell for different prices.

“Whatever you want me to do in a week I can try to get that out. I made some masks for some police officers over the weekend. I made about 80 to 90 over the weekend, so I am averaging about 40 a day, but if we have to do more we will do more.”