Hulling is when the beans are put into a machine that takes off the parchment layer, or, the endocarp. Primarily it's from wet processed beans. Dry processed coffee beans refers to taking of the entire husk: the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp.
Polishing is an optional process. It's used to remove any skin left on the coffee beans after hulling. Polished beans are said to be more superior to unpolished beans, but there's nothing really different about them.
Grading and Sorting are the final steps before exportation in which the beans will be sorted by size and weight as well as evaluated for color flaws and other physical imperfections.
Beans are sized by going through a series of different sized screens where the size is given in a ratio on a scale from 10 to 20. The number represents a round hole's diameter in terms of 1/64 of an inch.
Then the "defective" beans are removed. This includes off color, bug damage, off size, over-fermented, or not hulled. It really could be anything that the people find imperfect of the bean itself. Mostly it's done by hand and machine in most countries to insure the healthiest beans get exported and the mutated ones are thrown out.
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