Bottled Canadian Air Being Sold In China – Despite Priced At $14 Per Can, Business Is Booming, Says Company

Bottled Canadian air is selling well in China. Despite the rather steep starting price of $14 per can, the entire first shipment was snatched up within a couple of weeks.

As China’s air pollution continues to worsen, entrepreneurs around the globe are profiting from the crisis. A Canadian company has started shipping cans of air. The cans, claimed to be filled with invigorating mountain air, are being sold from $14 all the way up to $28, depending on the size of the canister.

A Canadian start-up company, called Vitality Air is making brisk sales of bottles of fresh mountain air to people in China. The company has confirmed there’s huge demand for its air, which the company claims is bottled in a ski resort. Vitality Air revealed that the first batch of 500 canisters, filled with fresh air from the Rocky Mountain town of Banff, went on sale in China last month and sold out within two weeks, reported CNN. Speaking about the company’s product and the demand, Troy Paquette, one of the co-founders of Vitality Air said:

“Essentially we’re selling air. Clean, beautiful, fresh Banff mountain air. Now we’re taking lots of pre orders for our upcoming shipment. We’re getting close to the 1,000 mark,”

Vitality Air’s China representative added that, the minute the bottles went on sale in Taobao, a Chinese website similar to eBay for online shopping, they “sold out almost instantly,” reported Zee News.

China declared red alert for #smog. Need a breath of fresh air? Check out our products! #ChinaSmog pic.twitter.com/9wPWH090Ol

— Vitality Air (@vitalityair) December 8, 2015

The company’s major customer is China, where demand is skyrocketing owing to dangerous levels of pollution. A majority of China’s interior is engulfed by a thick layer of smog. The problem peaks in winter, when homes and power plants burn excess coal to keep warm. The resultant pollution is choking the country and causing serious health problems. China’s air pollution has been chronic for quite some years owing to rampant industrialization and companies that blatantly burn fossil fuels, worsening the problem, said Zhang Bin, an official with Changchun city environmental protection department,

“Many cities in China, including the northeastern provinces, use coal as the major heat generator, which pushes up air pollution levels.”

The pollution forced the country to issue its first ever “red alert” over high levels of hazardous particles in the air. Beijing urged local educational institutions to temporarily shut down, and restrictions were imposed on factories. The country is even trying to rid its highways of old, outdated and polluting vehicles, reported The Christian Science Monitor.

Current particulate air pollution in China has reached 50 times over safety levels recommended by the World Health Organization. Breathing in the polluted air is like smoking multiple packs of cigarettes every day. Weather conditions in the winter keep dirty air trapped closer to the ground, further contributing to the problem. Air pollution is currently killing an average of 4,000 people in the country per day.

What does Vitality Air offer? Started by Moses Lam and Troy Paquette in 2014, the company essentially sells compressed natural air. The company’s filling station is located in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, western Canada. The region is home to over 600 lakes, allowing the air to be saturated with oxygen. The filling station crams in the fresh mountain air using “clean compression techniques.” These pressurized cans in varying quantities are then shipped to China, where they are sold to customers who are deprived of the most basic of all necessities – clean breathable air.

Bottled air from Canada is the newest luxury item in smog-infested China >> https://t.co/NxvbUIMkf1 pic.twitter.com/upxjGOD1Lu

— Discovery (@Discovery) December 17, 2015

The Canadian company claims its products can help with “hangovers, alertness and working out.” Vitality Air markets its cans of bottled air to China as “your solution to pollution.” Selling canned air is nothing new in the country, but these certainly aren’t long term solutions.

[Image via Shutterstock]