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Company to sell potable bottled deep-ocean water

Under the guidance of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a local company yesterday launched what it called the nation's first pure bottled deep-ocean water for drinking.

Eastlife DSW Biotech Corp (東潤水資源生技), formerly known as Pacific Marine Biotech Corp, said it has become the nation's first company to obtain the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection's voluntary product certification (VPC) to sell deep-ocean water. The bureau is under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Eastlife has laid two pipes to retrieve water from a depth of 710m off the coast of Hualien. Water retrieved there has been proved by ITRI to be free of dioxin and heavy metal pollutants but rich in micro-minerals that are easily absorbed by human bodies, company chairwoman Julianna Chen (陳韻如) said at the product launch yesterday.

The new product is sold in 500cc bottles for NT$25 each.

The company, a private investment of Lucky Cement Co (幸福水泥) chairman Chen Liang-chuan (陳兩傳), has invested NT$500 million (US$15 million) in the project, said Julianna Chen, his daughter.

Eastlife plans to extend the product line to fruit vinegar and wine in the first stage, and health food, cosmetics and spa treatments in the second.

"Our ultimate goal is to build a resort hotel in Hualien that integrates the area's rich sightseeing resources to tap the NT$18 billion deep-ocean water market per year," she said, adding that overall investment would reach NT$5 billion.

The Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥) has invested NT$1 billion and also plans to use deep-ocean water to make cosmetics.

Lee Shih-chi (李士畦), a department manager at ITRI, said Taiwan has had similar bottled deep-ocean water products available before, mostly from Japanese or US companies which were able to do the kind of water retrieval that requires expensive advanced technology.
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