가두리양식장 폐사체 처리시설의 경제적 타당성 연구

Abstract

There has been a constantly growing need for proper facilities to process the fish carcasses generated in domestic sea-cage farms. As a result, the fish carcasses, generated from fishing farming, have been recently processed into organic fertilizers primarily by two types of facilities in Gyeongsangnam-do. So far, fish carcasses, generated from sea-cage farming, have been thrown away illegally in the absence of proper measures to process them properly, leading to accumulation of serious damage to marine environment and fishing grounds environment. Thus, it would have important implications for both industry and environment to ensure proper management of fish carcasses by deploying proper processing system. Therefore, the fish carcass processing systems for sea-cage farms need to be distributed widely as part of public undertaking, on which the feasibility study should be carried out in advance. For that, the economic feasibility study was conducted to promote spread of fish carcass processing system in currently operational sea-cage farms, involving the cost-benefit analysis used most commonly for feasibility analysis of public undertaking. The items of benefit arising from operation of the processing systems were classified into the direct benefits, such as administrative cost reduction stemming from onshore burial and entrusted processing, resource recycling benefits brought by production of organic fertilizers, and indirect benefits that included the benefits brought by preventive measures against epidemics, prevention of diseases, and marine environment benefits. Those direct and indirect benefits were converted into monetary value through the process of prediction and selection based on research findings and statistical data related to natural science. We analyzed the economic feasibility on the two types of models, i.e., the factory-type model presently operational in Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do, and self-processing type model installed in Hadong on the basis of their respective current status and performance, and furthermore, examined the efficiency that could be achieved by those two models if they were spread nationwide. First, the factory-type processing system, currently operational in Geoje, was examined in term of initial investment cost, annual operation cost, and processing performance. Cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted based only on the direct benefits that could be generated from 10-year operation of factory-type processing system, and the results suggested that the factory-type processing system was not economically feasible. When the indirect benefits were factored in, the results of cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the factory-type processing system was partially economically feasible. The self-processing type processing system, currently operational in Hadong, was not found to be economically feasible in the cost-effectiveness analysis that considered only the direct benefits to be generated from 10-year operation. When the indirect benefits were factored in, the results of cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the self-processing type processing system was highly economically feasible. Among the two models, the self-processing type processing system in Hadong was found to outperform the factory-type processing system in Geoje and outstrip it significantly in terms of efficiency. Second, the factory-type model was partially economically feasible when the cost-effectiveness analysis took only the indirect benefits into consideration to evaluate the economic feasibility on the assumption of 10-year operation under the scenario that both factory-type model and self-processing type model were widely spread and distributed nationwide. By contrast, the self-processing type model showed high economic feasibility under the same scenario in the cost-effectiveness analysis that considered the additional factor of indirect benefits, although little economic feasibility could be anticipated when only direct benefits were considered in the cost-effectiveness analysis. Moreover, the self-processing type model was found to be more excellent and efficient than the factory-type model when the two different models were compared with each others. In conclusion, the fish carcasses generated in sea-cage farms can be processed by factory-type model and self-processing type model, and the results of analysis showed that both models had little economic feasibility when only direct benefits were factored in. However, when the indirect benefits, such as the benefits brought by preventive measures against epidemics, prevention of diseases, and marine environment benefits, were additionally considered, the self-processing type model was found to have high economical feasibility. The self-processing type model was found to outstrip the factory-type model significantly in terms of economic feasibility, which might be attributable to the fact that the self-processing type model incurred far less operating cost, compared to factory-type model, after the initial purchase of equipment. However, the decision to be made by policy makers in light of budget scale, local characteristics, etc., may differ widely. This study was intended to provide useful and various information on the expansion and distribution of fish carcass processing systems for sea-cage farms, thereby providing a basis for reasonable policy-making.