A lack of sex education in this country of 1.3 billion has produced a cultural bias against the tampon until now. Eighty years after the product was introduced in America, Chinese women will be able to purchase their first domestically manufactured brand.
“It is important China has its own brand of tampon,” Ye said. “Every industry needs a pioneer, and I want to be this one’s.”
There could be quite a market for the items in China, home to 670 million women — 377 million ages 15 to 50 who are most likely to use them. But it will be hard to convince women to switch from a sanitary pad, with 140 billion pads expected to be used this year. Only 2% of Chinese women use tampons, according to a 2015 survey by Cotton Incorporated, an industry marketing group based in North Carolina.
Last year, nearly 85 billion sanitary pads were made in China but not one tampon, according to reports. However, about $185 million worth of tampons, originally purchased elsewhere, were resold at a premium in China.
