Hawaii Makes Splash Selling Deep Seawater
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HONOLULU — State exports of desalinated deep seawater soared 700% during the first three months of this year to $8.8 million, topping chocolate and coffee as Hawaii’s biggest food-related foreign export.
The seawater is being marketed as healthy, pure, mineral-rich drinking water, and is popular in Japan.
The export level is even more impressive considering the industry was launched just three years ago.
“If it’s not already, it will be our biggest export,” said Steve Bretschneider of Deep SeaWater International Inc., which plans to begin bottling seawater this summer. “It’s really just beginning.”
The water is collected from a depth of 3,000 feet off Kailua-Kona at the state Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority.
Koyo USA Corp. was the state’s first and remains its largest bottler of deep seawater, producing about 250,000 1.5-liter bottles a day for export to Japan.
The company expects to open a third plant at the energy laboratory this summer, quadrupling production to 1 million bottles a day.
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