Known for its $30-a-pound Kona coffee beans, posh $1,000-a-night hotel suites and $1 million ocean-view condos, the west coast of Hawaii's Big Island is now cashing in with another pricey offering: $6 bottled water from the bottom of the ocean.
Desalinated deep-sea water from Kona is the state's fastest-growing export with demand soaring in Japan. Super-cold water sucked up from thousands of feet below the Pacific Ocean's surface is being marketed as healthy, pure, mineral-rich drinking water.
Koyo USA Corp. already is producing more than 200,000 bottles a day and says it can't keep up with demand in Japan, where it sells 1.5 liter bottles of its MaHaLo brand for $4 to $6 each.
"We couldn't ask for better sales," spokesman John Frosted said. "At this point, we can't make enough. We have no surplus."
Four other companies hope to cash in on the deep-sea water fad, and so is the state, which collects royalties and rent from the bottlers based at the state Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) property next to the Big Island's Kona International Airport.
The state pumps the chilly water from 2,000 feet beneath the sea, and the companies pay a few cents per bottle to use the official NELHA logo on their label, certifying the deep-sea water was collected at the state facility.
Koyo, the only company currently selling the deep-sea water from Hawaii, is expanding its plant and has applied to sell the water in the United States. It will sell for much less than in Japan.
In addition to Koyo, Asia's thirst for Hawaiian seawater also has attracted Los Angeles-based Deep Sea Water International; Japanese-owned Enzamin USA and Hawaii Deep Marine Inc.; and Korean-owned Savers Holdings Ltd. [snip]
Mark Anderson of the state's Foreign-Trade Zone Division said Hawaii always had difficulty creating new export industries because Asia and the West Coast have more resources and cheaper labor.
But Hawaii may have discovered an inexhaustible gold mine.
"There's a lot of water out there. I don't think they're going to run out," Anderson said.
NELHA: www.nelha.org
Koyo: www.hawaiideepseawater.comAssociated Press
