SEAWEED HAS GROWN WILD FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS... But Seaweed (nori) has been used as a staple food and medicine in Japan for 2000 years. In the 17th Century demand became so great that harvesting 'wild' seaweed was replaced by cultivation.

Modern cultivation is no longer the cold and slow work that it was. But in many ways things remain the same. Today nori is still the simple, healthy and natural product it has always been.

To put it simply, seaweed is grown on 'seeded' nets placed between bamboo poles in the rich sea around Japan's Western coastline. The 'seeds' are grown on oyster shells in special tanks onland.

Seaweed is winter harvested. Having grown on the nets in the cooling autumn seawater, it is harvested between December and March by specially designed boats, a job that until recently done by hand!

Harvested seaweed was traditionally dried into sheets using the sun. Today seaweed is dried is automated plants.

However great care is taken to ensure quality is maintained. Processors use no more than can be processed in a day. The seaweed is carefully measured onto racks in wooden frames and the water drained.

Seaweed is then dried by heating, though care is taken never to exceed 50c so the delicate qualities of the 'nori' is maintained.

The nori sheets are now 'semi finished'. It is sold at auction, where companies bid to get the highest quality produce.

Yamamoto Noriten is renowned for never accepting anything but the best at auction. Once purchased, the seaweed is further 'roasted', and where necessary, seasoned to make the many 'nori' products that Japanese consumers love.