early potatoes

Potato giant Branston has this week unveiled its new £1.7 million grading, washing and sizing line at its Perthshire site.

The new line is touted as “revolutionising the factory’s ability to process high volumes of the crop”, and comes as the company gears up production to meet demand from a new long-term supply contract for a major customer.

Supplied by Haith Group and Newtec, the equipment features a new style of washer and the latest Celox optical grader.

Kevin Imrie, general manager at Branston’s Scotland site, said: “The line has state-of-the-art washing equipment as well as the latest in optical-grading technology. It reduces the manual handling of crop and enables potatoes to be graded to remove quality defects then sorted into much more accurate size bands ready for packing.

“This new technology will create a simpler and more efficient process whereby we will be able to wash, size grade and remove quality defects in one process – handling up to 175,000 potatoes/ 50 tonnes per hour.'

Imrie said Branston is looking to add to its pool of 41 Scottish growers as the business continues to expand. “The continued investment in new technology shows our continued commitment to growing our business in Scotland for the long-term benefit of the potato industry here and across the UK,” he said.

Branston has three sites across the UK, in Perthshire, Lincolnshire and Somerset.