Eqraft Sets Course Toward the Potato Market

Translated from the article by Pieter Boekhoudt and Peter de Craemer of AGF Publishers, published in Primeur magazine, August 2025.

“Eqraft is best known as a machine builder and total project integrator in the onion industry. However, the approach also lends itself perfectly to the potato market,” say Hermen de Jong and Tiemen Markerink from the sales department. The next ambition: an advanced optical sorting machine, specifically for potatoes. Not a small step, but a logical one.

Over the past years, Eqraft has developed strongly in the onion sector. In addition to stand-alone machines, they supply complete processing lines, from intake to packaging, including optical sorting. “By now, our machines are running worldwide, from North America and Europe to Australia and New Zealand,” says Tiemen. “We’ve used that experience as a springboard for the potato industry in recent years. Many of the standard machines we use as building blocks in onion factories, we’ve already applied in the potato sector as well.”

“The potato market was actually asking for it itself,” Hermen adds. “Customers who knew our technology in onions asked whether we could develop something similar for potatoes. And honestly, we already had machines for everything in the chain — from conveyor belts, cleaning machines, brush machines, hedgehog belts, bunkers and box fillers to weighers and packers; except for a sorting machine.”

New Machine, Blank Sheet

Adapting an existing onion sorter turned out to be not so simple. “We did some tests with potatoes on our onion sorter,” Hermen explains. “But it quickly became clear that we really had to start with a blank sheet of paper. The potato is a different product with different requirements.”

The design of the new optical sorter, which should make the shake sorter redundant, focuses on individual tubers. Just like with onions, each piece is assessed for color, weight, size, and shape. “With an optical machine you can measure ratios such as length-to-square size more accurately. That can be very interesting for the seed potato market and the fries industry,” Tiemen explains. Quality will also be given full attention, both externally and internally. “Especially the latter is the biggest challenge,” says Tiemen. “How do you look inside a potato? There are techniques, but making them truly reliable — that’s our goal.”

Capturing the Potato Fully

To achieve a working solution, Eqraft is developing multiple proof of concepts. The machine must be able to measure dry matter content and detect internal defects such as rust or bruises. Various methods are being tested to capture the entire potato. “Do you have to rotate it? Roll it? How do you take pictures from all sides?” Hermen wonders aloud. “With onions, we hold them still, turn them over, and take pictures again. But flipping a potato, which is often elongated, is quite different.”

Sorting at the individual level requires singulation — delivering each potato separately. “That affects your capacity,” says Tiemen, “but it also brings advantages such as less drop and impact damage, a huge amount of data, and very accurate sorting results. Moreover, we aim for a minimum cup filling of 75%; then the machine may also be slightly more expensive.”

“With shake sorting, potatoes are damaged by shaking and falling, but for retail it is becoming increasingly important that potatoes are undamaged in the bag. And a machine sorts more consistently than people at the conveyor belt.” This is also an advantage for processors. “If your input is better, you’ll have to discard less at the output stage,” Hermen explains. “A green potato ultimately means a green fry. That’s something you don’t want.”

Data is the New Gold

“Furthermore, we’ve seen in recent years that obtaining data is becoming increasingly important in a production line,” Hermen adds. “Where a few years ago only capacity in tons per hour or number of boxes per day mattered — and later the number of boxes per size or the weight of the waste stream — now individual product data is becoming ever more valuable.”

Optical sorting with a cup sorter provides data on each individual potato or onion. “Integrations with an ERP system or MES layer become simpler, as does optimizing the flow. Production insight, traceability, and quality settlements are also simplified,” says Hermen. In the coming years, a link with cultivation and storage seems obvious. “So many camera-driven machines already roam the fields. These data will increasingly be analyzed and connected further down the process to achieve a more predictable production — and ultimately a more predictable market.”

The ideas are becoming concrete. Eqraft is working on a six-lane prototype that should be running in a shed within a year. Depending on the potato size, that model should process 15–20 tons per hour for table potatoes and 25–30 tons for the fries industry.

Integration as Strength

What makes Eqraft unique is their role as total integrator. They don’t just supply machines; they optimize entire factory processes. “Often you see that a factory has developed historically,” says Tiemen. “First intake, then sorting, and later packaging. That leads to crisscross logistics.” Eqraft aims for factories where the entire process — from unloading to loading — runs automatically. Fewer hands, more peace in the process. “In America we do a lot with box handling,” says Hermen. “That means roller conveyors, lifts, turntables, box filling and emptying. That way you need fewer forklifts, fewer drivers, less maintenance, fewer training courses, fewer certificates, and there is less risk of human error and damage.”

This means the investment in a machine doesn’t only pay off in labor savings. “It’s about what else you gain: fewer claims, higher quality, better price for your product,” says Tiemen. “In Canada we have a customer who reduced internal rot in onions from 5% to less than 2% with our sorter. As a result, they no longer receive claims from the end customer; that saves serious money.

Each customer gets tailor-made solutions. Although six lanes seem to become the standard for the new potato sorter, the rest varies. “One customer wants three exits, another twenty. We can build that; that flexibility is our strength,” Hermen concludes.