How potatoes are sorted and graded in India, and where AI grading fits

Potatoes are not sold as one thing. A buyer pays for a size band and for how clean the lot is: no green, rotten, cut or badly shaped tubers, and no stones or clods. That is why Agmarknet reports a minimum, a maximum and a modal price for potato in each market: two lots in the same yard on the same day can sit at opposite ends of that range.

The cold store is where grading pays twice. A lot stays there for months, so a cut or rotting tuber loaded at the start is still sitting beside sound ones when the lot comes out. And the buyer at the end of storage, whether a wholesaler, a chips plant or a seed grower, asks for a size band. A graded lot can go straight to that buyer; an ungraded one is sold at the price of its worst part, or graded again later at someone else's cost.

India grew 585.7 lakh tonnes of potatoes in 2024-25, and Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal alone grew 58.3% of it (state figures below).

In everyday trade, "A grade" or a size name means different things to a processor, a wholesaler and a retail buyer, which is why "A grade" means different things in the potato trade argues for stating the size in millimetres or grams instead. The official standards that do give numbers are these:

Table: size rules as printed in each standard. mm = the square mesh or measured width; g = tuber weight.

The same seed standard allows not more than 1% by weight of cut, bruised, misshapen or cracked tubers, and says green colour on a seed tuber is not a reason to fail certification. The UNECE text allows 6% by weight of ware tubers that miss the minimum quality rules, of which not more than 1% may have dry or wet rot.

India also has Agmark grade standards for fresh potato under the Fruits and Vegetables Grading and Marking Rules, 2004 (potato is on APEDA's list of Agmark fruits and vegetables). We could not open the potato schedule itself on 23 October 2026, so we do not quote its sizes here.

Seed standards (PDF) · UNECE FFV-52 text (PDF)

There are three ways to do the job, and most Indian cold stores and packhouses still use the first two together.

Table: capacities as each maker states them on its own site, read 23 October 2026. Real throughput depends on tuber size and how full the line runs. None of these makers prints a price; they quote on request.

"AI" in a sorter means the software has been trained on thousands of pictures of good and bad tubers, so it can tell a scab from a soil mark without a person writing a rule for each. It is still a camera: it cannot see what the light cannot reach, and it has to be trained and checked on your variety.

For machine types, makers and the prices makers publish, see IndianPotato's buyer's guide to potato grading and sorting machines. How optical sorters work across crops, from nuts to fries, is set out in this guide to optical sorting machines.

Start from two numbers: how many tonnes an hour you must grade in your busiest weeks, and what your buyer rejects. Then:

• A farmer group or small FPO grading a few tonnes a day: a small roller or screen grader plus an inspection table, where two or three people pick out green, cut and rotten tubers. One Indian maker lists a mini line of 1 t/h.
• A cold store at loading time: a field or yard grader that keeps up with the trucks, with a picking belt in front of it (one Indian maker lists 15–20 t/h graders). Removing rotten and cut tubers before they go into the chamber matters more than a fine size split.
• A packhouse selling washed, packed potatoes to retail or quick commerce: size grading plus an optical sorter, because these buyers reject on looks (greening, scab, marks) and a person cannot check every tuber at speed.
• A seed grower: size grading to the seed bands above matters most, because certified seed is sold by size; the seed standard does not fail a lot for greening.
• A chips or fries plant: an optical sorter on the incoming line and on the finished product. Internal defects and sugars matter here, which only some AI graders and lab checks catch.

Before you buy any machine, ask the maker for a trial run on your potatoes, not their demo lot, and count what it wrongly throws out as well as what it catches. Ask who services it in your state, and how long a spare part takes.

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We read each scheme's own guidelines on 23 October 2026. Only these three say in their text that sorting or grading facilities are eligible:

Table: wording quoted from each scheme's guidelines; ₹ amounts are the cost ceilings and rates printed there.

Three things to check before you count on any of them:

• MIDH says both pack house items must follow NCCD (National Centre for Cold-chain Development) guidelines, and that the cost norms are a ceiling; the actual cost is worked out from the parts you choose. FPOs and groups of at least 25 members registered with the district can take the subsidy without a bank loan if they can pay their share.
• AIF's September 2024 guidelines say loan disbursement under the scheme completes by the end of 2025-26. We found no notice on its portal extending that, so ask your bank whether it is still sanctioning new AIF loans.
• PM-FME's guidelines cover 2020-21 to 2024-25. Ask your state's PM-FME nodal agency whether it is taking new applications.

We could not open Operation Greens' pages on MoFPI's website on 23 October 2026, so it is not in the table. A loose grading machine is not a line item in any of them: MIDH funds pack houses, and AIF and PM-FME fund grading units and premises as projects, through a bank loan or a project report.

The six largest potato states grew 90.9% of India's crop in 2024-25. That is where most grading capacity is needed, and where cold stores are busiest at loading time.

Table: potato 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 potato series by state, six years deep. Spotted a figure that has changed? Tell us.