The shine may be coming off Hawai'i's boom in exported deep-sea water.

After a tenfold increase in shipments in the last two years, exports fell 11 percent in the first quarter.

The desalinated seawater is marketed as a health drink in Japan where it sells for $5 for a 1.5 liter bottle.

"It appears that this rapid ramp-up period is over," said Gregory Barbour, who tracks exports of seawater as the administrator for Foreign-Trade Zone No. 9. "There's no huge surge (in sales) this year."

International exports of "non-sweetened water" fell 11 percent to 33.6 million pounds in the first quarter, when compared with the first three months of 2006, according to figures released yesterday by the Foreign Trade Zone Division of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The declared value of non-sweetened water exports, which are comprised primarily of bottled desalinated seawater, fell 5 percent to $8.4 million.

Springing up almost overnight, the bottled seawater industry makes Hawai'i's leading locally produced export. With several more companies planning to bottle and market deep-sea water, sales could resume their climb in the coming years.

Four more companies have plans to tap into a Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai'i Authority pipeline that draws deep-sea water from off the Kona Coast. The facility is currently host to three companies, including industry-leader Koyo USA Corp. And earlier this month DSH International Inc., which operates as Deep Ocean Hawaii, began harvesting deep-sea drinking water from a ship positioned 3.4 miles west of Ko Olina.

Deep-sea water, pumped from 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, has become a hit in Japan where it is marketed as a pure, nutrient-rich drink. The water is touted as being thousands of years old and free of modern impurities.

However, after several years of sales growth, demand from Japan has stabilized, which is driving water bottling companies to target new markets including the Mainland U.S. to reignite sales growth.

"We're probably flattening out in some of the markets and new markets haven't come fully online yet," explained Jeff Smith, chief operating officer for bottler Deep Seawater International Inc. "We can expand our capacity. We just haven't had to yet, so we still have some room for growth."

Smith said his company plans to break ground on a second bottling plant this summer that would boost its production capacity to 1 million bottles a day.

Apart from Deep Seawater International, no new bottling factories are expected to be built at NELHA for at least another 18 to 24 months, said NELHA Chief Executive Ron Baird.

Companies such as Koyo USA Corp. and Deep Seawater International are hoping bottled deep-sea water catches on in Mainland markets. Last summer, Koyo USA opened a third plant at the Kailua, Kona, facility in anticipation of new U.S. and Asian sales.

However, breaking into the U.S. market takes time. For example, Koyo has waited 18 months for California's permission to sell Koyo's Mahalo-brand water in the Golden State.

Yutaka Ishiyama, sales and marketing manager for Koyo USA, said the company hopes to receive regulatory approval soon.

"The California market happens to be the biggest market in the entire world and it's next door," he said. "We really want to go into California."

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.