How a Ramea fish plant is learning to process uni for a Japanese market

Two Japanese technicians spent just over a week in December giving fish plant workers in Ramea, N.L., a crash course on processing sea urchins for a picky home market. 

The product is a culinary delicacy in Japan, but for the people processing it at the plant in the small island community on Newfoundland's south coast, an older, less appetizing name still rolls off the tongue. 

"Normally sea urchins, locally known as whore's eggs, was nothing. It was seen as garbage, something that the seagulls ate," says plant manager Bruce Childs as the morning's urchin cracking was getting underway.  

This latest attempt at exporting sea urchins — uni in Japanese — to Asian markets is the brainchild of Ramea plant owner Danny Dumaresque, who sees them as a way to increase profits, and keep the lights on in the plant and workers busy for more months of the year. 

Dumaresque's company, Labrador Gem Seafood, has already sent out its first shipments, and the hope is up to two per week during the winter months if all goes well. 

Dumaresque, a former member of the House of Assembly, says the plan came together in the fall after making numerous attempts to get in touch with a Japanese importer in Osaka. Once contact was made and he confirmed the importer's interest, things moved quickly. 

"I did one of the fastest trips to Japan that I've ever made, and I jumped on a plane and landed at Tokyo, arranged for the first time to get a bus from Tokyo to Osaka, sat down with these fine gentlemen who have been into the sea urchin purchasing internationally for some 30 years," said Dumaresque. 

A couple of months later, Kyosuke Nishio and Shuji Nanno arrived at Deer Lake Airport and headed down the Burgeo highway to take the ferry to Ramea. 

It wasn't the first time for this pair to teach the art of processing sea urchin to newbies.

They work for Osaka-based Maruwazu Trading Co., which imports sea urchins from countries including the United States, Mexico, Chile, Peru and China. 

When it's a new operation, Nishio and Nanno get sent in. 

"We try to teach all of processing. Cracking and spooning, and washing and cleaning," said Nishio. 

They also teach how to grade the sea urchins based on colour. Top-grade uni on the Japanese market can fetch high prices at supermarkets and restaurants.

"Most Japanese people like a very light yellow and a lemon colour. Like a lemon. A light orange is good. Dark brown or a grey, they don't eat very much," said Nishio, who says Ramea is a good location for processing because of its low temperature. 

He also says the workers are trying hard to understand the ins and outs of sea urchin processing. 

"We have to do a little bit more to get more better. But we can get there," said Nishio. "Ramea has big potential, I think."

The sentiment is shared by plant veteran and 15-year quality control manager Louise Kendall. 

"This is our second shift on it. It's going good," she said. "Better than I thought. It's new to us. It's the first time we've ever done sea urchin so it's a lot to learn and a lot to take in." 

Kendall says her Japanese colleagues taught them a lot in a short time. 

When asked if they are tough teachers, she laughed.

"Not bad. Not bad. Just getting used to them and they getting used to us."

Kendall hopes the operation is successful because it would make the plant — which also processes scallops — an almost year-round operation, a throwback to the years before the cod moratorium. 

The addition of sea urchin means about 45 people would have extra work with the island's biggest employer — with a species they never thought about processing before.

"I never thought I'd see sea urchins working in the plant. But it's wonderful," says Kendall. 

As for whether she's developed a liking for the product, Kendall says the taste is good, but the raw texture is not her thing. Nevertheless, she says, everything coming out of the plant will be up to the standard set by her trainers. 

The project, though, is not without its challenges. 

The last time the plant was open in the winter was about quarter of a century ago, and plant manager Childs says working temperatures will have to be regulated. 

"We can't have freezing temperatures because this has to be done fresh. It can't be frozen," he says. 

A bigger issue is the cost of transportation when considering the bottom line. 

Once processed and put into 100-gram containers, the journey to the dinner plates of Japan is a long one. 

Each shipment of roughly 300 pounds is transported to Burgeo by ferry, and then heads 900 kilometres to St. John's to be flown first to Montreal and then on to Tokyo.  

 "It's time-consuming, but also very expensive," says Dumaresque. 

And right now, the profit margin is thin. 

Dumaresque says each pound he sends over has a value of about $35, but his costs run around $28. 

But he thinks that will change. 

"This is a brand-new piece of product going into a brand-new market for us and it takes time for the various customers to assess and recognize your brand, and then to pay you according to the quality that you can consistently supply."

In terms of supply, Dumaresque says there is no worry on anything lacking. 

"They got no tails. They will swim nowhere. So knowing that you've got this wonderful resource, firmly attached to your sea bottom is a great comfort." 

Patrick Gagnon, an assistant professor at Memorial University, agrees. 

"There's lots of urchins all along the coast here," he says from the university's Ocean Sciences Centre. 

According to Gagnon, the island's rocky coastline is exactly what sea urchins are looking for. 

"We are lucky enough in the province because we have lots of green sea urchin. That's the only species we have here in the province, but it happens to be the species that they are looking for on the Asian markets." 

He says Newfoundland has the perfect conditions for developing a market overseas. 

Back in Ramea, Deputy Mayor Lester Gould sees the extended plant operations as a good thing, but won't predict too much about what it could mean for the island community. 

"It should be a stabilization, at least," he says. 

And Ramea could use it. 

In 1981, the population was 1,386, according to Statistics Canada. In the years that followed the cod moratorium, people started to drift away in droves, and by 2016, the population stood at 447. As for the next generation, the local school has 19 students. 

To ensure sea urchin processing continues, Dumaresque says he's looking for other markets and is in discussions with people in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as in New York, Los Angeles and other parts of the U.S.

If all goes well, his plan for next year is to start the processing in October and run through until spring. 

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