The world’s biggest sperm bank, Cryos International, whose main office is in Aarhus Denmark, says it does not want any more sperm from red-haired donors because they have more than enough to meet current demand.
Ole Schou, agency director for Cryos, told msnbc.com yesterday that their stock was “about to explode”.
“We have nothing against red-haired donors,” said Schou, explaining that they just had too much stock for the demand at present. The current stock amounts to around 140,000 doses of sperm from redheads.
He told the Danish press their clients tend not to choose a redhead, unless a partner, for example a sterile male, has red hair. Or perhaps less commonly, when a lone woman has a preference for redheads, reports the Telegraph.
Schou said the only reliable demand for sperm from red-haired donors was in Ireland, where it was selling “like hot-cakes”.
He also explained they weren’t taking sperm from Scandinavian donors either at present – the exception being brown-eyed Scandinavians: apparently they don’t have enough stock of their sperm.
He said the problem was although they were based in Scandinavia, where they “harvest” a lot of donors, they supply to over 65 countries worldwide.
“What we need is brown-eyed Scandinavians/Caucasians and Mediterranean donors and other ethnicities and races,” he explained.
They have a high demand for sperm from donors with brown hair and brown eyes, he said, because Cryos has lots of customers in Spain, Italy and Greece.
The sperm bank pays donors up to $500 dollars (just over £300).
They also want more Black, Asian, Hispanic, and mixed race donors.
Apparently, they also have a shortage of Indian sperm, because India does not allow sperm or eggs to be exported, which makes it hard for childless Indians living in other countries.
Later on in the msnbc.com interview he clarified that they were however, still accepting sperm from redheaded donors if they had brown eyes.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD