For Li Lim and Pheobe Chen, sea urchin roe is not just a delicacy — it’s a career opportunity.
The international workers, from Malaysia and Taiwan respectively, were intrigued by the prospect of working with the expensive seafood, and chose to work in a NSW sea urchin factory to complete their 88 days for a Working Holiday Visa.
On the far south coast, the factory has recently become one of only two facilities in the state to export the seafood delicacy, to countries including Korea and China.
This year, the two workers started jobs at the family-run business Sea Urchin Harvest in Moruya, alongside 28 other overseas workers.
Director and owner, Chris Theodore, said that without them he would have struggled to get his first international shipments of produce out the door and onto a plane.
He said hiring more overseas workers meant he could double production from two tonnes to four per day.
“It’s been really helpful — they’re great workers, very optimistic and hardworking,” Mr Theodore said.
“You’ve got to have A-grade, really high-quality market produce.
“There’s a lot of competition worldwide with sea urchins.”
A similar business, South Coast Sea Urchins, is based in Merimbula and began exporting just this month.
Outside of NSW, there is just one other Australian business, based in Tasmania, licensed to export sea urchin roe to the international market.
International workers
Earlier this month, Li Lim hosted a Chinese New Year event with her colleagues from Australia, Taiwan, China and Malaysia.
She ensured sea urchin was the star of one traditional dish.
“It’s fun here because I’ve met a lot of people, other backpackers, a lot of other nations, at the same time the locals are nice, ” Ms Lim said.
She said most days feel like a holiday living in a coastal town.
“You can’t really see busy people here, there’s no 9-5 office hours, everybody is in holiday mode.”
She joked that her friends from home can see why she wanted to work in the factory.
“They say, ‘wow, you work with sea urchins, it’s very expensive … I get why you work there, so you can get free urchins.'”
Meanwhile, Phoebe Chen said she has enjoyed meeting different people during her time as a factory worker.
“We can do the cultural exchange and language exchange, we can discuss a lot of cultural business or cultural shock, it’s pretty fun.”
Ms Chen said it’s been a “special experience”.
“It’s cool to see how they deal with the sea urchins, opening and picking out the organs and packaging,” she said.
Having also laboured as a fruit picker, Ms Chen says she prefers the specialist seafood work.
“Compared to the fruit picking, inside is more comfortable than the outside, especially if it’s raining.”
Environmental benefits
Cayne Layton, a marine biologist from University of Tasmania, said the expansion of NSW sea urchin businesses was a win for Australia’s east coast.
“The ability to export their product is really important, not only for our rural and regional economies, but there is real potential to help control overabundant urchin populations,” Dr Layton said.
“[Sea urchins] overgraze large areas of kelp forest and create what’s called urchin barrens — that’s an area of degraded reef, [which] doesn’t support the same amount of biodiversity or productivity that a healthy kelp forest does,” he said.
“As long as this resource can be harvested sustainably, it creates really new exciting economic and environmental opportunities in this part of the world.”
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