China is importing cans of fresh air from Canada
http://linqplanet.blogspot.com/2015/12/china-is-importing-cans-of-fresh-air.html
This might seem like a joke, but this start-up business that Canadians Troy Paquette and Moses Lam started last year, has become a lucrative business. They are selling canned air, more specifically fresh air from the Rocky Mountains in Banff National Park, Canada.
It may sound crazy that someone would actually pay for canned air, but the startup has found a market very interested in the product, China.
“A gag gift, that’s how it started off, but you know what? There’s actually a lot of demand for this in … highly polluted countries,” Lam told the Canadan National Post.
This recent demand is the result of severe pollution warnings, specially in the city of Beijing, where extremely high levels of pollution resulted in school closures, restrictions on vehicular traffic, decreased industrial activity and halted construction work. The warnings of unprecedented pollution have increased, and so has the number of potential consumers for ‘fresh canned air’.
Banff National Park, where the air is taken. [Image source: iStock by Getty Images]
Bottled in aluminum cans like an aerosol spray, Vitality Air company, based in Edmonton, Canada, sells their cans of fresh air online with prices ranging from $19 to $59, depending on size. You can also purchase the ‘pack’ with several cans for lower prices. The bottles come with an attached breathing mask to facilitate inhaling the air.
“Our first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days,” Lam told the Telegraph.
In addition, several Chinese distributors have expressed interest in selling the product in stores throughout the country. Local companies also have profited from the dangers of air pollution in China, including a restaurant in the city of Zhangjiagang, near Shanghai, which charges their clients a ‘clean air’ fee at the cost of 15 cents.
It may sound crazy that someone would actually pay for canned air, but the startup has found a market very interested in the product, China.
“A gag gift, that’s how it started off, but you know what? There’s actually a lot of demand for this in … highly polluted countries,” Lam told the Canadan National Post.
This recent demand is the result of severe pollution warnings, specially in the city of Beijing, where extremely high levels of pollution resulted in school closures, restrictions on vehicular traffic, decreased industrial activity and halted construction work. The warnings of unprecedented pollution have increased, and so has the number of potential consumers for ‘fresh canned air’.
Banff National Park, where the air is taken. [Image source: iStock by Getty Images]Bottled in aluminum cans like an aerosol spray, Vitality Air company, based in Edmonton, Canada, sells their cans of fresh air online with prices ranging from $19 to $59, depending on size. You can also purchase the ‘pack’ with several cans for lower prices. The bottles come with an attached breathing mask to facilitate inhaling the air.
“Our first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days,” Lam told the Telegraph.
In addition, several Chinese distributors have expressed interest in selling the product in stores throughout the country. Local companies also have profited from the dangers of air pollution in China, including a restaurant in the city of Zhangjiagang, near Shanghai, which charges their clients a ‘clean air’ fee at the cost of 15 cents.
