Here is an interesting back story to Fiji Water.
We've all seen its product placements and probably have read about its ownership.
I learned a couple of things from this article and figure it might be of interest.
IMO an unlikely, but good news story.
Quote:
How Fiji water became a tourism icon [SMH] Fiji water is making an international splash.
Fiji may be in hot water with its friends over the island republic's policies since a military coup in 2006, but when it comes to cold bottled water, its popularity is international.
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...In the US, it's shipped by sea and and now stands second among all imported bottled water behind France's Evian.
And among customers is US President Barack Obama.
...The exposure may have delighted Tourism Fiji and the water exporters, but it may not have sat too kindly with Fiji Water's American rivals.
Claims arose that the Fiji company produces its water at a high environmental cost, at a production plant running on diesel 24 hours a day and burning fossil fuel to import plastic bottles by sea from China and a one-litre bottle of Fiji Water, it was said, results in 0.25kg of greenhouse emissions.
...Mr Gilmour sold Natural Waters in 2004 for a reported $US50 million ($A64million) to Roll International, a billion-dollar private holding company in Los Angeles with diverse interests including large producers of citrus fruits and nuts, owned by Hollywood couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick.
Production of Fiji Water and by eight other members of the Fiji Water Institute stopped briefly last year when the interim government formed after the 2006 military coup imposed a tax of 20 cents per litre on bottled water; it resumed after the tax was shelved by the government.
(I'm not normally a buyer of bottled water, but I have some of this at home (a special offer a while back) and love the bottle design. )
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When I buy boutique bottled water (which is not too often) I do enjoy Fiji after Vittel, Volvic, and Voss. I also wonder how the rain water penetrates impermeable rock as per the back label of Fiji water bottles.....
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What is the deal with Fiji water - I know it is outrageously expensive - what is so special about it? Is it regular water, or some kind of mineral water?
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Bottled water in general is environmentally horrible, as water is pretty heavy, and a lot of fossil fuels get burned shipping it hundreds or thousands of miles from source to consumer. So while Fiji water may be worse on this front than domestically produced water, it's pretty bad for even the local companies to be playing the environmental card here.
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...The exposure may have delighted Tourism Fiji and the water exporters, but it may not have sat too kindly with Fiji Water's American rivals.
Claims arose that the Fiji company produces its water at a high environmental cost, at a production plant running on diesel 24 hours a day and burning fossil fuel to import plastic bottles by sea from China and a one-litre bottle of Fiji Water, it was said, results in 0.25kg of greenhouse emissions.
Yeah, and I'm sure all these US firms pump their water using gnomes and deliver it using pixie dust powered trucks.
Pathetic that they'd use poor excuses like this to complain about Fiji. It is decent water, and it is marketed brilliantly.
I'd rather spend $3 on a bottle of Fiji Water than $3 on a bottle of <insert fictitious spring name here> city water that has undergone a 20 step treatment in a factory.
I think the Fuji plastic bottle is a really nice design and much more rigid than most others. Best part is many hotels give them out to the frequent travelers for free and the bottle sturdiness permits many refills from the nearest tap.
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Fiji water is not as popular within Fiji.
On my recent trip there was another local water with a similar logo and bottle design that was more readily available... although the Hilton did have a few Fiji water bottles in the fridge.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottC
Yeah, and I'm sure all these US firms pump their water using gnomes and deliver it using pixie dust powered trucks.
Pathetic that they'd use poor excuses like this to complain about Fiji. It is decent water, and it is marketed brilliantly.
I'd rather spend $3 on a bottle of Fiji Water than $3 on a bottle of <insert fictitious spring name here> city water that has undergone a 20 step treatment in a factory.
Completely agree. I realize that I dont drink enough water. I have to pick up a case of Fiji, the bottles help with behavior modification and will get me to drink more. Silly, whatever..... It will work.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deniah
all bottled water tastes the same to me.
for water on a volume basis to cost 7x what gasoline costs is a ridiculous notion
It is, but I think most of it is packaging and shipping costs. It's sort of analogous to engine oil. I'm not a chemist or petroleum engineer or whatever, but I think the process to refine oil into motor oil isn't much different than that of refining gasoline. Yet a quart of oil on the shelf of Schucks/Kragen/CarQuest/NAPA/whatever is FAR more than a 1/4 of a gallon of gas at the corner gas station. If you could buy oil in bulk (in 55 gallon drums, like auto shops get it), it's probably much cheaper, and if you could justify buying it by the tanker truck load, it's probably just about the same as gas.
With water, small bottles are expensive, but if you go down to your local Culligan man (hey!), you can get the same stuff for a tiny amount. When I was camping in a trailer without running water, I was able to refill my 2-gallon dispenser at Culligan for about a buck and a half, and a 5-gallon bottle was only a little bit more. It tasted exactly the same as the $2 Dasani from the vending machine.
If you do want the convenience of portable bottles and don't want to hassle with refilling from jugs, the best and cheapest I've found is the Kirkland Signature bottled water at Costco. I actually prefer the taste of that to Arrowhead, too.
Fiji Water
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