THE SCIENCE OF SEAFOOD

Seafood provedore Umar Nguyen is Australia's sole producer of wild-caught scampi caviar.  

Extremely popular with Australian chefs, the Scampi is caught out of Shark Bay by Shark Bay Seafoods from depths between 200 to 1000 metres off the West Australian coast. The caviar is in hot demand in the lead up to Christmas, with tins retailing right now at upwards of $150 for a 25g tin.

To meet demand for these rare 'ocean sapphires', Umar delivers 3kg (150 x 25g tins) to customers each month. Each 3kg batch requires 6kg of raw product, which need to be carefully sorted by hand using long tweezers to remove impurities.  It's laborious work, which has led Umar to decline large and international orders in favour of maintaining current clientele.

"I've had carpal tunnel, shoulder issues, two slipped discs in my neck," explains Umar. "It's annoying, and physically and mentally draining - always working in the cold room doesn't help either. We physically can't scale up to meet the demand of the larger orders. Also, if we put someone on to help us there's a duty of care that we can't meet. We talk about sustainable produce but if it's not sustainable physically, then we can't do it." 

In late 2023, Umar participated in the ARM Hub Technology Roadmap Accelerator for Female Founders. The ARM Hub team worked with Umar to devise a new method for sorting the caviar. Biomedical technology - a dental aspirator or suction tool, originally designed to ensure a clear and dry working area for dentists - was successfully modified and applied to the task. 

Umar took delivery of the new, modified aspirator system on November 30th this year - just in time for the Christmas rush. Umar and her co-worker daughter put the new machine to the test, running head-to-head against Umar using the manual tweezer system. 

Pictured - The dazzling blue of Australian scampi caviar is a favourite of local chefs 

Christened 'Bernie' by Umar, the machine's precision and constant operation means sorting can be done faster, by less experienced staff, and for longer periods.  

The efficiency gains on their first trial meant cleaning time for 1kg of caviar was reduced from 8 hours to just 90 minutes. When Umar used the system for herself, the new tools meant pain-free processing for the first time.

"It's a great outcome, and not just because Umar's business is now much more sustainable," said ARM Hub Founder and CEO Cori Stewart. "The goal of ARM Hub's Female Founders program is to help develop lasting solutions with new technology, and scale high-value female-led manufacturing businesses for global market success. It's just the start, but we're so happy to see such a positive immediate impact on people's lives, as well as on the business side."

The next phase is exploring further applications of the technology, including research and development on a first-of-type caviar sorting platform, which will use computer vision to identify and classify eggs. Biomedical systems may have more contributions to make across the Australian Food Industry, and with AI and robotics in support the future looks bright.

"Last week we sold 140 tins alone and it's exploding", says Umar. "It's been really good to be able to meet that demand without pain. It also means for the first time we're able to explore new channels. We want to be able to showcase what Australia has to the rest of the world, chefs in Dubai, London, chefs all over the world. Now we can. It's exciting. Look what we've got."

ENDS

ABOUT UMAR NGUYEN

Umar Nguyen represents for Australian Primary Seafood Producers, with a Passion Project for Under Utilised Seafoods.

She was covered by the ABC in 2022 here as part of a story about sustainable seafood, and can be found at Instagram @thefishgirl. 

ABOUT CORI STEWART

Cori is the founder of CEO of Australia's Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Hub. The Hub looks to develop lasting solutions with new technology for Australian businesses, and are launching Australia's first robotics sprint beginning in 2025.