Seawater on track to be Isles' top export
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| DBEDT director Ted Liu, Koyo USA CEO Yasuki Takano, Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona recently toasted — with seawater — to the state's certification program for bottled seawater.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Hawaiian deep seawater is marketed as a pure and nutrient-rich alternative to tap and spring water. The seawater is pumped from a pipeline that extends 2,000 feet below the surface of the ocean before being desalinated and bottled.
For four years, Japanese consumers have been thirsting for deep seawater and Hawaiian water is considered by many to be the best. Just how long the boom will last is unknown. For now, demand is outstripping production and five companies are betting the trend will continue.
Last month Koyo USA Corp. completed a 75,000-square-foot seawater bottling factory near Kona that boosted drinking water production from 75,000 to 200,000 bottles a day. And in September, Enzamin USA Inc. plans to open a 56,000-bottle-per-day factory.
Tonight Koyo will host local, state and business leaders at a dinner at the Hilton Hawaiian Village to celebrate the opening of its new factory at Keahole Point on the Big Island and the licensing of a state seal that certifies Koyo's Ma Ha Lo water as a Hawai'i-made product.
The use of seawater from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's deep sea pipeline as drinking water began last August. Today it's among the state's fastest growing exports in terms of dollar value, said Mark Anderson, administrator for the Foreign Trade Zone division of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
The state's biggest export products based on annual declared value are chocolate goods ($8.1 million), fruits ($8 million), scrap paper ($4.7 million), and coffee ($3.9 million), according to the Foreign Trade Division.
Koyo at full capacity expects to export 250,000, 1.5-liter bottles a day to Japan, where they sell for between $3 and $4 a bottle. That would equate to about $875,000 a day, or more than $250 million a year, in retail sales.
"If they're doing as much as they say they're doing, in my opinion that would certainly be one of the biggest, if not the biggest exporter of locally made goods," Anderson said.
In recent months Koyo has increased employment from 60 to 75 people at the plant, which operates 20-hours a day, six days a week. More than 10, 40-foot containers full of bottled seawater is shipped daily, said Hiroshi Usami, director of construction for Koyo.
The state's Natural Energy Laboratory stands to gain thousands of dollars for allowing the companies to use its pipeline. Under an agreement with the state, Koyo and other bottlers will pay the lab an undisclosed amount per bottle produced.
The research facility currently spends about $500,000 more per year than it takes in, said Jeff Smith, executive director of the Natural Energy Lab. But the fees from seawater bottling should make up that deficit and possibly exceed it.
The lab now has five tenants with plans to sell deep-sea water, including Enzamin USA, which plans to start exporting in September.
"This is very good for us; it gives us tenants where we once had lava," Smith said. "And it gives some of our people in town jobs."
At 75,000 square feet, Koyo's building is the biggest at the lab, though it's eclipsed by other Kona buildings such as Costco's 157,000-square-foot store and the 116,000-square-foot Home Depot, according to the Hawai'i County tax assessor's office.
For now, anyone looking to buy locally made deep seawater drinking water is out of luck. That's because the water won't be available for sale in the United States for six to 12 months, according to Koyo and Enzamin officials. Deep seawater still needs U.S. government approval before sales to consumers can start.
"First we'll export to Japan, Korea and China," said Yoshi Furno, general manager for Enzamin USA Inc. "Then (it's) on to the Mainland."
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
