Pacific Harvest's beginnings date back to the 1980's when an itinerant salesman in New Zealand's South Island started selling Karengo out of the back of his car to patrons of the local pubs. Pacific Harvest as we know it today was formed to formalise this activity into a full seaweed harvesting, manufacturing and distribution business which could take advantage of the great health properties of sea vegetables. The initial focus was on providing products for the Health Food stores, and Kelp, Agar and Natural Sea Salt were added to the product line throughout the 1990s.

Doug and Louise Fawcett bought Pacific Harvest in 2002 with the idea of making sea vegetables a more integral part of Western cooking with a focus equally on providing a great taste experience, and giving the benefit of their outstanding wellness properties. As such, Pacific harvest's product range is innovative in its use of seaweeds by mixing the new with the familiar, with a goal to carve itself a place of choice as part of the western meal.

2003 has been a pivotal year for Pacific Harvest. We re-designed the labels to incorporate our new logo and to comply with NZ Food Safety Authority and NZ Retail requirements, innovated with the announcement of a new range of naturally flavoured Kelp Seasonings and provided a variety of new packaging sizes and formats. While continuing to increase our presence in the Health Food market, we also introduced our products into the Gourmet and Hospitality markets.

2004 saw us form new alliances to extend our activities. As a member of the cluster group Great Taste New Zealand spearheaded by John Millward, Pacific Harvest became a key player in the concepts of Indigenous Foods and New Zealand Signature Cuisine; through Great Taste NZ sponsored activities we increased the exposure with the Chefs and NZ Tourism. We also sealed new alliances at the prodction level with Profile Products and Healtheries of NZ Limited. We also prepared Smoked Sea Salt; our point of difference is that we are doing it the traditional way... the long way...without the use of smoked essences and oils. We were granted the Award for Innovation and Excellence by Cuisine and Matua Valley Wines for our innovative products. This was a real boost for our confidence and visibility in the marketplace.

2005 was a consolidating year from a distribution point of view: we assumed a  more direct involvement in the relationship with retailers carrying our products. We started investing time and energy to further develop seaweed awareness through in-store tastings and speaking engagements to clubs and associations.  We started producing our Karengo & Tamarillo Chutney commercially, which proved to be a big hit even for reluctant seaweed eaters !
 
2006 was a full year with the move of our factory from Tauranga to Albany and the annoucement of new products and alliances. We added Wakame and Sea Lettuce to our range of seaweeds and worked with Molly Woppy to produce a range of handmade biscuits containing kelp ingredients for the gourmet market: Lemon kelp Biscotti, Chilli Kelp & Chocolate Biscuits, Chilli Kelp & Cheddar Cheese Sticks. For the first time, we exhibited at the Food Show in Wellington.
 
2007 was focused on consolidating seaweed usage through our retailers by producing recipes using our products, scheduling regular tastings and cooking classes. We announced a new member to the Kelp Seasoning family: Garlic Kelp, and to the sea salt family: Kelp Salt.  
 
2008 has already seen the announcement of new products: Furakaki range, and a focus on the South Island and Christchurch.