Onion grading machines in India: what AI grading at Pimpalgaon market shows

An onion lot is not sold as one thing. Traders pay for a size band, and for a lot without doubles, sprouted, rotten or skinless bulbs. That is why the government's Agmarknet portal reports a minimum, a maximum and a modal price for onion in each market: two lots in the same yard on the same day can sit at opposite ends of that range.

Skin matters as much as size. Onion keeps for months in storage only if its dry outer skin stays on, and buyers, particularly in export markets, mark down bulbs that have lost it. Producers and industry groups told BusinessLine that friction in mechanical handling can peel the thin skin of Indian varieties, shortening shelf life and affecting prices. That is a key reason most onion in India is still graded by hand, by people sitting at a heap with baskets.

Maharashtra grew 135.6 lakh tonnes of onion in 2024-25, 44.1% of India's 307.7 lakh tonnes (state figures below), and Nashik district, with the Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon Baswant markets, is at the centre of that trade.

On 19 August 2026 BusinessLine reported that Agrograde, a Pune agri-tech company, had installed its GradePlus Pro automated onion grading system at a farmer producer company in Pimpalgaon, Nashik district. Rural Voice carried the same news the same day. Neither names the farmer producer company, and we found no statement on the install from the market committee or the company itself as of 23 October 2026. So every figure below is Agrograde's own:

Table: figures as Agrograde stated them in its media statement, reported by BusinessLine on 19 August 2026. Not independently tested.

The machine uses what Agrograde calls WaveMotion: onions are moved along in a controlled wave instead of being dragged or shaken over rollers, to keep the skin on. Agrograde's release, as Rural Voice reported it, said even imported machines "costing around ₹1.25 crore" had caused skin damage and peeling in India. The company has also built a tractor-mounted version that can move between farms, packhouses, cold stores and mandis.

BusinessLine adds that Agrograde, founded in 2018, makes grading, sorting, weighing and packing systems for onion and potato, and says it has deployed more than 130 machines across 14 states.

For the full company picture, from the Vector optical sorter to the GradePlus graders, see IndianPotato's profile of Agrograde.

Table: capacities and features as each maker states them on its own site, read 23 October 2026. Real throughput depends on bulb size and how full the line runs.

"AI" here means the software has been trained on many thousands of pictures of good and bad bulbs, so it can tell black mould from a soil mark without someone writing a rule for each. It is still a camera: it sees the outside of the bulb, and it has to be checked on your own variety and season.

Most makers do not print a price. These are the ones that do, as listed on 23 October 2026:

Table: prices as printed on each maker's own website. occipital.in is the site of Occipital Technologies Private Limited, the company behind Agrograde. None of the listings says whether GST, freight or installation is included.

Treat these as a starting point, not a quote. The same Agrograde site lists two more onion graders whose descriptions also name the GradePlus Pro, at ₹4,00,000 for 4,000 kg an hour and ₹9,59,500 for 5,000 kg an hour, so ask the maker which model and which capacity a price is for, in writing, before you compare.

• A trial on your own onions. Not the maker's demo lot. Run a day's stored rabi onion and, if you handle it, fresh kharif onion too. Count the bulbs that lose their skin, not just the ones graded right.
• Check the grades yourself. Take 50 bulbs from each outlet and measure them across the widest point. Then you know what "99% accuracy" means on your line.
• Tonnes per hour at your bulb size. Capacity on a listing is the best case. Ask what it does with your mix of small and large bulbs, and with the heap full of soil.
• Power at the site. The listings above range from single-phase 220 V to three-phase 440 V. A farm or FPO shed may only have single phase.
• Who services it, and how fast. Ask for the nearest service person to Nashik (or your district), the price of common spares and how long they take to arrive in peak season.
• Installs you can visit. Ask for two buyers of the same model you can call or visit, and what their grading cost per tonne came to.
• A written quote that says GST, freight, installation, training and warranty, and which capacity it is for.

How the same machines are used for potatoes, with the official size grades, is in our guide to potato sorting and grading in India. For potato machines, makers and the prices they publish, see IndianPotato's buyer's guide to potato grading and sorting machines.

Planning an onion or potato grading line? Tell us your crop, tonnes per hour and site. We reply within 2 working days with what to ask the makers and what to check in a trial. Plan your grading line

IndianAgri sells no machines and takes no payment from the makers named here. We do not pass your enquiry to any maker.

The six largest onion states grew 84.6% of India's crop in 2024-25. Maharashtra alone grew 44.1% of it, on 49.7% of the country's onion area. India's crop was 242.7 lakh tonnes in 2023-24.

Table: onion production by state, 2024-25, Final Estimates. Compiled by IndianAgri from the Horticulture Statistics Division, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. Shares are each state's figure divided by the all-India total in the same release.

See the full onion series by state. Spotted a figure that has changed? Tell us.