UK Potato Farmer E W Button & Son invests in Haith grading facility for its early season and ware potatoes

One of Cornwall's leading potato growers has become the latest producer to put its trust in Haith Group.

In 2020, with demand for homegrown produce soaring, E W Button & Son decided to invest in a brand new, purpose-built grading facility for its early season and ware potatoes.

Following a recommendation from a neighbour, Joe Button decided to engage Haith to design and install his new potato grading system.

Commissioned last month, the line, which can handle 30 tonnes per hour, features Haith's latest innovations.

The Cornish potatoes are tipped directly from the tractor-trailer into a Haith Supa-Flow Bulker. The 2.4m wide bulker features dual direct drive, double incline belt for easy loading, and a crop flow control unit where sensors control the speed of the bulker.

The crop passes through a Haith Evolution Multi-Separator and into a Tomra 3A Optical Sorter, which removes stone, clod and green potatoes from the dirty crop before entering a series of eight Haith Supa-Flow screen graders.

The screen graders feature three full-width agitators that can run at various speeds and feature dual roller screen drives and a crop unplugging roller in a maintenance-friendly yet robust construction.

Once size graded, the potatoes are filled into boxes via SupaFill 400 box fillers. Controlled by a touchscreen HMI, these fillers are gentle on the crop and feature rubber door stop belts multi box height filling functionality.

As a result of the new grading line, Joe and his team have seen throughput speeds increase by 35% and a significant improvement in crop quality with no mechanical damage and the majority of stone and clod removed.
 

Joe Button:
 

"Our old line was starting to show its age and was nowhere near as effective as this new Haith line."

"Demand for homegrown produce has rocketed in the last couple of years, and we needed to invest in a new line to keep up. Haith has an excellent reputation, and we've never had a problem with the box fillers that we bought from them last year, so it was an easy decision to put our trust in the Haith team."

"We're really pleased with the new line, and it's made a real difference in just a few weeks of running it."

The Button family has been growing potatoes, blueberries and cereals at Tregawn Farm since they bought it in 1939. Benefitting from the coastal climate, EW Button & Sons supplies its salad, main crop and processing potatoes to major supermarkets, processors and exporters.

Duane Hill, sales director at Haith:
 

"Cornish potatoes are delicious, and it's fantastic that they are growing in popularity. We have several customers in Cornwall, and this latest project further strengthens our presence in the county. This line has been designed to meet Joe's precise needs, and we are delighted that he has continued to trust Haith to handle his exceptional produce."