AI Robots Are Coming to Cattle Slaughterhouses… NongHyup Eumseong Livestock Products Market Invests 2.8 Billion Won to Pursue Commercialization

NongHyup Economic Holdings’ Eumseong Livestock Products Market, which boasts the largest cattle slaughter volume in Korea, is making a full-scale introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) automation robots into its cattle slaughter process. The market, which had been left in a blind spot for government support because it is classified as a mid-sized enterprise, formed a win-win consortium with an agtech startup after close consultations with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, securing state funding and firing the starting gun for innovation in livestock technology.

According to the NongHyup Eumseong Livestock Products Market, it was finally selected as a beneficiary of the ‘Support Project for Rapid Commercialization of AI Applied Products in the Agri-Food Sector,’ hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and implemented by the Korea Agriculture Technology Promotion Agency (AX Innovation Growth Team). Originally, this project was limited to ‘small and medium-sized enterprises,’ making it difficult for the NongHyup Eumseong Livestock Products Market under NongHyup Economic Holdings, a mid-sized enterprise, to participate. However, after active consultations with the ministry, it dramatically made the final list by forming a consortium with the lead company Robos Co., Ltd. (an SME).

This project will run as a two-year assignment (July 2026 ~ December 2027), with a total budget of 2.8 billion won. It is structured as a matching fund of 1.9 billion won (70%) in government subsidy and 900 million won (30%) in self-funding from the market. The NongHyup Eumseong Livestock Products Market applied under ‘Type 2,’ which targets stages where system verification and prototype testing have been completed in similar environments (TRL 5–8), and was selected after intense competition.

Once highly dangerous slaughter sites, now securing ‘safety’ while cutting ‘279 million won’ in budget at the same time
Looking at the detailed implementation plan, the agreement will be signed this July, followed by the installation of two automated cattle stunning robots in March 2027 and one automated cattle carcass-splitting robot in September 2027.

If these robots are successfully established on site, dramatic changes are expected in terms of safety, cost efficiency, and productivity.

The stunning robot prevents musculoskeletal disorders and safety accidents by eliminating the use of conventional slaughter guns (powder-actuated firearms). In particular, the annual 250 million won spent on slaughter gun consumables will be entirely saved. In addition, precise laser-guided stunning is expected to reduce defects such as muscle hemorrhaging that occur when cattle collapse, significantly reducing complaints from farmers.

In addition, the carcass-splitting robot will replace the dangerous process in which workers used large saw blades to cut cattle in half. This will save 65 million won annually in saw blade and machinery consumable costs, and by precisely separating along the center of the cattle spine through advanced sensing, it will minimize loin loss and improve quality.

The most notable point is the ‘reduction in operating costs.’ Currently, annual slaughter line maintenance costs amount to 315 million won, but after the robots are introduced, the expected annual maintenance cost is projected to be only 36 million won. As a result, about 279 million won can be saved annually compared to the current system, while also easing the burden of operating with three workers at slaughter sites suffering from severe labor shortages.

 

Expected improvement in carcass quality and reduced staff fatigue through perfect calibration for the ‘Korean-style slaughter environment’
If these robots are successfully commercialized at the NongHyup Eumseong Livestock Products Market, which handles one-sixth of the country’s cattle volume, the symbolic significance will be enormous. However, experts in the slaughter industry advise that true commercialization can only succeed if on-site variables hidden behind the flashy technology are perfectly controlled.

Park Won-seok, executive director at Robos, said, “Inside slaughterhouses, the main conveyor shakes heavily, and a lot of steam (fog) is generated during scalding and washing processes, making it a very harsh structure for AI vision to capture coordinates,” adding, “We attached an air-blowing device to the LiDAR scanner to technically compensate for environmental interference, and even in poor conditions, we improved the success rate by more than 2% compared to competitors.” Since Korean beef cattle are priced more than 10 times higher per head than pigs, even a 1–2% error rate can cause fatal losses to both the market and farmers.

Lee Seung-beom, deputy head of the NongHyup Eumseong Livestock Products Market, also stressed that ‘detailed quality verification’ should take priority over speed competition. He said, “If we simply increase speed just because machines are introduced, the hide may be damaged or the meat’s marketability may decline, causing wholesalers to turn away,” adding, “In the early stage of installation, we plan to secure stability by operating the robots alongside skilled workers’ manual work. Even if machine introduction secures just 30 more minutes of working time, staff fatigue on site will decrease, and the overall carcass quality will improve by another level.”

Attention is focused on whether this cattle slaughter automation project, being attempted not only for the first time in Korea but also for the first time in the world, can present a new standard management model for Korea’s domestic livestock logistics ecosystem, which is facing a crisis.