Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market

Key data points: Market size in 2027 = $1 billion and 2035 = $3 billion, growth forecast = 8.1% annually for the next 8 years. Scroll below to get more insights. This market report covers trends, opportunities and forecasts in grain mycotoxin sorting market to 2035 by sorting capacity (low, medium, and high), application (wheat, corn, barley, rice, and others), end use (food processing companies, grain elevators, feed manufacturers, and others), and region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World) Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market The future of the global grain mycotoxin sorting market looks promising with opportunities in the wheat, corn, barley, and rice markets. The global grain mycotoxin sorting market is expected to reach an estimated $3 billion by 2035 from $1 billion in 2027 with a CAGR of 8.1% from 2027 to 2035. The major drivers for this market are the growing demand for high quality grains, the rising contamination of agricultural food crops, and the increasing regulations on food safety standards. • Lucintel forecasts that, within the end use category, food processing company is expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to the increasing demand for processed and value-added food products. • Within the application category, wheat is expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to the expanding use of wheat in processed food applications. • In terms of regions, North America is expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to the strong food processing industry and increasing demand for packaged foods. Gain valuable insights for your business decisions with our comprehensive 150+ page report. Sample figures with some insights are shown below. Emerging Trends in Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Between 2024 and 2026, the sorting of grain mycotoxins transitioned from an auxiliary Food Safety Equipment (FSE) measure to a necessary part of a core processing system. This transition was the result of the commercialization of hyperspectral imaging and AI-based systems. According to Lucintel, the two drivers of automation in the sorting of mycotoxins are currently spurred by the alignment of cross-border regulations. • Automation in Mycotoxin Sorting: AI is being utilized to replace conventional sorting systems. GROTECH’s DeepSort AI, launched in March 2025, reduced false rejecting of good kernels from 3-5% to 1%. Both Bühler and Tomra have shifted their focus, according to investors, to machine-vision R&D to gain a competitive edge. Since AI sorting systems significantly reduce yield losses, faster return on investment will drive system adoption from the large milling companies to smaller, medium-sized companies within the next 3-5 years. • Integration of Hyperspectral and Multi-sensor Imaging: Tomra’s hyperspectral imaging systems have reduced the aflatoxin levels in the USDA (Q1 2025) to 99.97%. In 2025, Anzai and Satake jointly filed a protein grading patent (JP2025-08421) in Japan, which also integrates NIR with other sensing modalities. This type of integration will become the standard in the industry rather than the exception. • The Diversification of Regional Capacities: In 2025, the Asia Pacific region made up 42.3% of the optical sorter market and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9%, as evidenced by the investment of the region, especially India, in the modernization of the farming practices to reduce contamination of grains, pulses, and food. The diversification of sorting capacities will influence and reshape the trade of processing equipment up to 2030. • Harmonized Food Safety Regulation: As export markets increasingly adopt stricter, more uniform mycotoxin standards, mycotoxin testing will need to meet the most stringent destination standards instead of the domestic minimum. • Feed and Byproduct Recovery: Increasingly, rejected grain is not being disposed of but is being diverted to be used as animal feed or as other industrial byproducts, enhancing the economics of grain processing. These two trends are forcing the market to improve the organization and regulation of grain and byproduct processing. Companies that offer AI detection along with regional service networks will outperform competitors that rely on a single technology. Buyers will experience increasing costs of capital, but will enjoy a long-term reduction in rejected and contaminated products. Recent Developments in the Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Investment in the segregation of mycotoxins in grains is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years, from 2024 to 2026. In the last few years, equipment suppliers have made incremental economical upgrades, but industry activity indicates that they will begin to engage in large-scale purchase and facility investments as well as acquisitions. From our research, we find that the majority of capital invested in the industry is consolidated in the hands of a few established suppliers of sorting technology, rather than in new entrants. • Facility Investment: Bühler has opened its Grain Innovation Center in Uzwil, Switzerland, planned to be operational in October 2024. The center will have approximately fifty pieces of sorting and processing equipment built on a five-story, 2,000 square meter facility. The center has been built for customer equipment testing. These dedicated application centers allow processors to test the equipment, potentially shortening the sales process for new sorting technologies. • Acquisition Investment: Bühler made a number of relevant acquisitions in the last 6-12 months. They acquired the German fermentation and hygienic-process specialist Esau & Hueber GmbH in the fall of 2024. In the following year they acquired CEREX's puffing technology. Acquisitions of this nature demonstrate consolidation of full-line processing suppliers; standalone equipment suppliers are losing market share. • AI-based Sorting Technology: Recently, GROTECH launched an AI system, DeepSort, in March 2025, which reduced the range of false-rejects of good-quality kernels from the 3-5% range to approximately 1%. Purchasing AI-based systems will be the norm over older technology systems (threshold systems) in the next five years. • Corporate Financing: Bühler financed a generous amount of acquisitions and investments ("coengineering") to enhance their production and logistics facilities with a dual-tranche bond that was issued in this period. Debt-financed investments give the incumbent firms a huge advantage over entry potential competitors. • Something Noted: Tomra Food won the Jury Prize at FOOMA Japan 2025 for its combined sorting and filling system. Regional exhibitions have more of an impact on the purchases of processing plants in Asia. Equipment suppliers that win significant trade show awards influence purchases of processing plants throughout Asia. This period of consolidation in the market is a result of mature suppliers merging. Buyers can expect smaller, independent suppliers to decrease while financing options become more available to bigger companies and spaced further apart. Expect more consolidation and integration in equipment. Buyers can also anticipate having to participate in more dedicated equipment testing. Strategic Growth Opportunities in the Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Suppliers of sorting technology will have new revenue sources since buyers want broader contracts until 2026. Lucintel says there is the most opportunity in the aftermarket, geographic, and adjacent-crop segments. • New Markets: The optical sorters segment in India has the potential to grow at 49.9% CAGR with the fastest growth among major markets. This segment has the potential to account for more than 18% of India's GDP because of the government's modernization programs in the farming sector. Vendors that set up local services and finance in the next few years will have the advantage when the smaller mills replace the manual grading system. • Service Contracts and Aftermarkets: As vendors sell more sorting systems, the aftermarkets from calibrations, software updates, and reteaching of defect models will be more profitable than directly selling the sorting systems. • Adjacent Crops and Nut Applications: Detecting corn and wheat aflatoxins from sorting system technologies can be used for tree nuts with similar contamination standards. Defining the technology in this space will create new business opportunities with no new R&D. • Pharmaceutical and Feed-grade Sorting: There is a growing need for sorting technologies for the pharmaceutical and feed grade industries that does not align with the food grade industries. This creates another market that is not reliant on the food grade grain cycles. • AI-based Detection Models: Customization of AI-based detection models to include region-specific contamination profiles has recently been a key buyer request. This has created an opportunity for vendors to increase their revenue with a mark-up on customized services while locking in longer-term contracts. The growth of this market is predicted to shift away from machine sales towards service provision, other crops, and geographic expansion. Suppliers that manage to build a recurring income stream for their equipment will outperform those who solely compete on price. Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Drivers and Challenges Automated detection is being adopted at a pace previously unseen by processors due to an increase in incidents of grain contamination along with the development of food safety regulations. Lucintel’s analysis of the industry indicates that during the 2020s, the biggest competitors will be those companies that successfully address regulation and technology cost curves. Trends • Regulation: Import monitoring systems across regions are becoming increasingly focused on aflatoxin levels, and Japan has instituted mandatory enhanced check corn imports, effective February 18, 2025. Exporters have begun sorting to the most stringent standard of the destination market. This creates a ratchet effect increasing the adoption of sorters as more countries enact lower standards. • Accuracy of Detection: The USDA has reported removal rates of 99.97% (Q1 2025) for hyperspectral and multi-sensor technologies, well beyond traditional RGB color sorting. The positive impact of the capital investment for processors to switch to these systems is the significant risk reduction and liability, and the cost of rejected shipments. • Incidence of Contamination: The WHO estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illness from contaminated food (October 2024) creating an emphasis on food safety mycotoxin risk. Corporate emphasis on food safety risk is sustained even with a decrease in available capital expenditure funds. • Trade Volume: There is increasing trade in food creating a sustained market need for sorting even without changes in policy of specific countries. • Improvements in AI reduce the cost of false rejections. New AI systems drive false-reject rates down to about 1% from 3-5%, and improve processor yield economics. Within five years, Mid-size mills will be able to afford the systems due to reduced AI compute and training costs. Challenges • High Startup Cost: The high cost of Hyper-spectral sorting machinery when compared to typical cleaning equipment is a large barrier for small regional mills. • Diverse Standards: Exporters have to customize their machines based on destination due to Aflatoxin limits of 2 µg/kg in the EU versus 20 µg/kg in the U.S. • Difficulty in Labour: Manual handling of calibration and updating the defect models is so far only possible in more automated grain regions due to labor constraints. It will take at least five year for the systems to be affordable enough for the small-mid size mills. For now the slow introduction of flexible calibration and financing systems will determine the winners for hardware vendors. List of Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Companies Companies in the market compete on the basis of product quality offered. Major players in this market focus on expanding their manufacturing facilities, R&D investments, infrastructural development, and leverage integration opportunities across the value chain. Through these strategies grain mycotoxin sorting market companies cater increasing demand, ensure competitive effectiveness, develop innovative products & technologies, reduce production costs, and expand their customer base. Some of the grain mycotoxin sorting market companies profiled in this report include- • Buhler Group • Alltech Inc. • PerkinElmer Inc • Tomra Systems ASA • Neogen Corporation • Binder+Co AG • Sesotec GmbH • Romer Labs Inc • Satake Corporation • Shanghai Techik Machinery Co Ltd Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market by Segment The study includes a forecast for the global grain mycotoxin sorting market by sorting capacity, application, end use, and region. Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market by Sorting Capacity [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]: • Low • Medium • High Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market by Application [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]: • Wheat • Corn • Barley • Rice • Others Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market by End Use [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]: • Food Processing Companies • Grain Elevators • Feed Manufacturers • Others Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market by Region [Value ($B) from 2019 to 2035]: • North America • Europe • Asia Pacific • The Rest of the World Country Wise Outlook for the Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Global market interest for automated mycotoxin detection grows as regulators adapt to tightening aflatoxin thresholds and processors adopt hyperspectral sorting. Per Lucintel, 2026 will see a significant shift in funding for sorting technology as major economies pass laws regarding grain safety and touching import regulations. • USA: Optical sorting provider Tomra, in the first quarter of 2025, reached a 99.97% aflatoxin removal rate in trials from the USDA. Tenacious U.S. corn processors now have the data to meet the increasing export quality standards for the coming years. • China: Aflatoxin related export issues have plagued the shipping of corn and peanuts for many years. The Chinese government issued Document No. 198 in December of 2024 and established new food reserve regulations and the country’s new grain quality standards. A nation-wide inspection of the state grain reserves was instituted for 2026. • Germany: Bühler Group’s acquisition of Esau & Hueber GmbH in September 2024 will improve the company’s processing technology infrastructure and strengthen their services to the milling and feed industries of Germany. • India: The launch of SWIFT 2.0 by the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, in November 2025, improved food import clearance, which now includes mandatory grain contamination checks. Given that agriculture is approximately 18% of India’s GDP, faster custom clearance will improve sorting adoption across India’s mills. • Japan: Changes to Japan’s mandatory expanded import monitoring for aflatoxin levels in corn from February 18, 2025 further strengthen the country’s border surveillance. This will continue to put pressure on corn exporters and domestic corn processors to develop pre-shipment sorting systems as part of their operations during the late 2020s. Features of the Global Grain Mycotoxin Sorting Market Market Size Estimates: grain mycotoxin sorting market size estimation in terms of value ($B). Trend and Forecast Analysis: Market trends (2019 to 2026) and forecast (2027 to 2035) by various segments and regions. Segmentation Analysis: grain mycotoxin sorting market size by sorting capacity, application, end use, and region in terms of value ($B). Regional Analysis: grain mycotoxin sorting market breakdown by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Growth Opportunities: Analysis of growth opportunities in different sorting capacity, applications, end uses, and regions for the grain mycotoxin sorting market. Strategic Analysis: This includes M&A, new product development, and competitive landscape of the grain mycotoxin sorting market. Analysis of competitive intensity of the industry based on Porter’s Five Forces model. If you are looking to expand your business in this or adjacent markets, then contact us. We have done hundreds of strategic consulting projects in market entry, opportunity screening, due diligence, supply chain analysis, M & A, and more. This report answers following 11 key questions: Q.1. What are some of the most promising, high-growth opportunities for the grain mycotoxin sorting market by sorting capacity (low, medium, and high), application (wheat, corn, barley, rice, and others), end use (food processing companies, grain elevators, feed manufacturers, and others), and region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World)? Q.2. Which segments will grow at a faster pace and why? Q.3. Which region will grow at a faster pace and why? Q.4. What are the key factors affecting market dynamics? What are the key challenges and business risks in this market? Q.5. What are the business risks and competitive threats in this market? Q.6. What are the emerging trends in this market and the reasons behind them? Q.7. What are some of the changing demands of customers in the market? Q.8. What are the new developments in the market? Which companies are leading these developments? Q.9. Who are the major players in this market? What strategic initiatives are key players pursuing for business growth? Q.10. What are some of the competing products in this market and how big of a threat do they pose for loss of market share by material or product substitution? Q.11. What M&A activity has occurred in the last 6 years and what has its impact been on the industry?