Fiji Water

This surely has to rank as one of the success stories, as far as Fijian export products go. The company has been around since the mid 90s, but it was after 2003 (when it became a turn down item in some of the worlds leading hotel chains), that saw it really gain in popularity. But Fiji Water is not actually a Fijian company. It is American owned.

That might come as a surprise to some people. Water from Fiji, bottled in Fiji, you assume the company is Fijian too, right? Wrong. Fiji Water in fact owned by Californian based entrepreneurs, Linda Rae and Stewart Resnick.

Still bottled in Viti Levu, Fiji

The water is pumped from an underground aquifer in the hills of Viti Levu. See the Google map below for the actual location. The bottling plant is tucked away in a quiet valley well off the main road and away from prying eyes. They don't encourage visitors. In fact if you actually manage to find the plant, you will be greeted with a no trespassing sign, prominently displayed (or at least that is what I found when I last tried, perhaps things have changed since then).

FIJI Water is bottled at the source, which is located in the Yaqara Valley on the island of Viti Levu. Due to its remote location, we are unable to offer tours of the FIJI Water bottling plant. It really isn't all that far out of the way, and if people wanted to make the trip to visit, well... why would Fiji Water want to stop them? Is it because visitors would see that they aren't as green as they want you to think? The huge diesel generators are certainly NOT environmentally friendly. Perhaps they might consider investing in solar technology in the future?

Controversy with bottled water

Many brands of bottled water have come under fire in recent times, due to being less "green" than they would have you believe. Fiji Water is no exception to this. While the plant is good for the local economy, and the company sponsors various initiatives in the community, things are perhaps not quite as rosy as they seem. Some of the contentious issues over the past few years include..

When asked to pay tax, the company threatened to close up and move offshore .
A promised planting scheme to offset their carbon footprint was never completed.
As they consume more electricity than can be supplied by the grid, they use large diesel generators.

But putting aside these things, there is no doubt that Fiji Water does a lot of good for the local communities. They provide much needed jobs for the villages in the area, they have various initiatives to try and improve the quality of drinking water in Fiji, and they have overcome the drawbacks of isolation to ship a high quality product around the world (over 1 million bottles per day).