Optimal meat utilisation with Völur AI technology

Meat accounts for 57 per cent of all greenhouse gases from food production. Yet the meat industry still makes critical decisions about value chain efficiency using manual calculations and experiential knowledge.

“The meat value chain is highly complex. It is a constantly moving set of gears, and isolated decisions have consequences both up and downstream. All these variables create trillions of possible combinations at any point in time,” explains Ekrem.

As a result, meat producers often experience inefficiencies - from overproduction and nonoptimal inventories to the inability to deliver demand, excessive purchasing costs, and unnecessarily high carbon emissions.

Völur AI software helps meat producers to determine the most optimal cutting and processing solutions. The decision-support dashboard gives producers a complete overview of the value chain, enabling them to make data-driven decisions.

“Völur is the first solution to provide such thorough insights,” says Ekrem. “We collect data from our customers, such as inventory levels and cutting patterns. Then we provide analytics and insights on their processes. It’s like solving a complicated math problem. All the decisions are sequential and have ripple effects throughout the value chain.”

Völur answers the meat producer’s most pressing questions, such as: What are the best cutting patterns and recipes? How many animals are needed to meet demand? Which cuts should be pushed to the market? What is the best inventory strategy?

Meat producers can also conduct what-if analyses, where they simulate different scenarios and see the effects of every decision before implementation.

The company works with customers individually to ensure they get a tailormade solution.

Through optimisation, Völur brings multiple benefits to the meat industry, both environmental and economic.

Firstly, Völur reduces overproduction and promotes more sustainable meat production. “Less overproduction means fewer CO₂ emissions. We can make a huge difference in the meat industry’s carbon footprint, which currently is one of the biggest offenders within the agricultural sector as a whole,” says Ekrem.

Völur also allows meat producers to get higher margins from every animal. Other benefits include reduced purchasing costs, lower inventories, and better control of raw materials.

Moreover, meat producers can better satisfy market demand and improve their sales mix. “Right now the industry is pushing meat into the market, regardless of the demand. Our solution gives producers better information about how to handle both current and future market demand, so they can make sound decisions for their bottom line,” says Ekrem.

The market value of the meat industry is expected to rise from USD 838 billion in 2020 to over USD 1 trillion by 2025. “The meat industry is huge and growing, but it needs to become more efficient and environment friendly, which is our area of expertise,” says Ekrem.

“We believe the optimisation market is at least USD 34 billion. Our live system with a large Norwegian meat producer shows that it’s possible to satisfy market demand using fewer animals and better resource utilisation.” he adds.

Provided as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the Völur solution has been launched in Norway, and the company plans to expand into the US and the European markets.