KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR: Some pressures to conform, though, to international industry standards would be welcomed by Russians seeking decent condoms. They've had to make do with contraceptives that turn out to be passion-killers. Steve Harrigan has more on the wants of the Russian consumer and the needs of the condom factories.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One, two, three, three, three -- 7,997 condoms to go. My quota is to test 8,000 a day, she says, but to find 8,000 good ones, you've got have to test 10,000 or 15,000. The odds are likewise stacked against many of Russia's old-fashioned factories. What the competition in Europe and Asia does by machine, here is done by hand, consumer goods made the same they were in a closed economy, with little regard for color, smell, or packaging. Bad quality, he says. That's why people turned away: They lost trust in us. Forty-year-old equipment for gaining that trust won't be easy. (on camera): In the hometown of Russia's oldest latex factory, you can buy 50 different kinds of condoms -- not one of them made in Russia. And few in Volsky wonder why. Russian condoms are a nightmare, he says, like sand paper. Too thick. I don't trust them. They break. Cheap labor has allowed the factory to stave off bankruptcy for now. Many of these jobs pay just about $50 dollars a month. It's also allowed them to undercut imports. Their target consumer is one ready to spend about 3 pennies on a condom and does not mind that it's been hand washed, hand tested, and hand packed. Steve Harrigan, CNN, Volsky, Russia.
Aged Factories Put Russia in Bad Condoms