Economic Analysis of the Use of VCS2000 for Pork Carcass Meat Yield Grading in Korea
Juntae Kim,
Hyo-Dong Han,
Wang Yeol Lee,
Collins Wakholi,
Jayoung Lee,
Youn-Bok Jeong,
Jeong Hwan Bae,
Byoung-Kwan Cho
Affiliations
Juntae Kim
Department of Biosystems Machinery Engineering, College of Agricultural and Life Science, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseoung-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Hyo-Dong Han
Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, 21 Areumseo-gil, Sejong 30100, Korea
Wang Yeol Lee
Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, 21 Areumseo-gil, Sejong 30100, Korea
Collins Wakholi
Department of Biosystems Machinery Engineering, College of Agricultural and Life Science, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseoung-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Jayoung Lee
Department of Biosystems Machinery Engineering, College of Agricultural and Life Science, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseoung-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Youn-Bok Jeong
Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, 21 Areumseo-gil, Sejong 30100, Korea
Jeong Hwan Bae
Department of Economics, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea
Byoung-Kwan Cho
Department of Biosystems Machinery Engineering, College of Agricultural and Life Science, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseoung-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Currently, the pork industry is incorporating in-line automation with the aim of increasing the slaughtered pork carcass throughput while monitoring quality and safety. In Korea, 21 parameters (such as back-fat thickness and carcass weight) are used for quality grading of pork carcasses. Recently, the VCS2000 system—an automatic meat yield grading machine system—was introduced to enhance grading efficiency and therefore increase pork carcass production. The VCS2000 system is able to predict pork carcass yield based on image analysis. This study also conducted an economic analysis of the system using a cost—benefit analysis. The subsection items of the cost-benefit analysis considered were net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and benefit/cost ratio (BC ratio), and each method was verified through sensitivity analysis. For our analysis, the benefits were grouped into three categories: the benefits of reducing labor costs, the benefits of improving meat yield production, and the benefits of reducing pig feed consumption through optimization. The cost-benefit analysis of the system resulted in an NPV of approximately 615.6 million Korean won, an IRR of 13.52%, and a B/C ratio of 1.65.