The company’s natural postharvest solutions aim to reduce fresh produce losses by up to 50 per cent without chemicals, helping smallholder farmers access global export markets
Postharvest solutions specialist Akorn Technology has been named as a finalist for the 2025 FoodTech Challenge, a UAE-based competition which brings together food and agriculture startups helping small growers combat significant losses and cold chain problems.
Currently in its final stages, the FoodTech Challenge, organised by the International Affairs Office at the Presidential Court of the UAE and Tamkeen, focuses on identifying and scaling agri-food technologies capable of transforming “arid, hot and increasingly challenging environments”.
“We’re honoured to be recognised as a finalist for the FoodTech Challenge,” said Anthony Zografos, CEO of Akorn.
“Akorn’s mission is to create practical, nature-based solutions that make fresh produce last longer without relying on chemicals and single-use plastics.
”Being part of this initiative validates the global importance of our mission and serves as one more testimonial to the groundbreaking nature of our technology platform,” he noted.
Up to 30 per cent of fresh fruits and vegetables are lost after harvest, with smallholder farmers in the global south particularly affected.
Reducing these losses with post-harvest treatments is ”essential” to improving farmer livelihoods and ensuring year-round global access to healthy, nutritious produce, Akorn stated.
”The post-harvest sector has long been dominated by chemical-based solutions that, while effective, are increasingly at odds with tightening global regulations and consumer demand for clean-label, chemical-free food,” the company commented.
”In contrast, newer entrants have focused on ’natural’ solutions that often proved too costly, impractical, or ineffective at scale and ultimately failed.
”Major retailers such as Walmart and Whole Foods have recently instituted wide-reaching chemical bans which are now reverberating through the global supply chain.”
Akorn said it is the first company to successfully bridge this gap.
Its products ”combine natural ingredients with proven performance”, it said, delivering solutions that are effective, easy to use, and cost-competitive, without the addition of synthetic chemicals.
“Our patented technology enables us to extract valuable compounds from agricultural byproducts and transform them into powerful, natural solutions capable of reducing post-harvest losses by up to 50 per cent,” said Zografos.
“We have already demonstrated the effectiveness of our technology on crops such as mangoes, stonefruit, pomefruit, sweet potatoes, and more.
“Through the FoodTech Challenge, we are expanding our work to leverage local resources and develop new formulations specifically optimised for the arid conditions of the global south,” he continued.
”The UAE offers an ideal testbed for these innovations – providing the perfect environment to validate their impact and scalability.
“The country has emerged as a global launchpad for technologies that advance sustainable food production in resource-scarce regions,” said Zografos.
Xander Shapiro, chief commercial officer of Akorn, explained that as a result of poor cold chains and excessive use of synthetic chemicals, perishable goods from smaller producers in the global south often fall foul of the strict quality and safety standards required by lucrative export markets such as the European Union, Japan, the US, and others.
“The inability to access global markets not only limits income growth but also stifles investment in improved farming practices and infrastructure,” he said.
”Akorn’s technology will improve supply chains, and boost economics and quality for global south markets.”
The winners of the FoodTech Challenge will be announced in the first quarter of 2026.
