A win earned the hard way
The UAE FoodTech Challenge drew 1,215 submissions from 113 countries, narrowing to 10 finalists for live pitches, and ultimately selecting four winners announced at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

The winners share a $2 million prize pool and enter the UAE’s national agri-tech ecosystem, with tailored in-kind support including pilot opportunities, access to research facilities, market-entry guidance, mentorship, and investor introductions, designed to help solutions scale from the UAE to climate-vulnerable markets globally.

Why this matters for Ghana and the Global South
The UAE FoodTech Challenge is explicitly designed to identify and scale technologies that boost food production and reduce food loss and waste in increasingly climate-stressed environments, with pathways intended to generate impact across the Global South. In Ghana, coconut and oil palm are described as “cornerstone crops”, cultivated across over 450,000 hectares, supporting livelihoods across farming and processing, yet increasingly threatened by the African and red and black palm weevils that can cause up to 30% yield losses and tree mortality. Permia’s Ghana-based work targets exactly these threats, bringing earlier detection and more precise interventions that can reduce losses and avoid reactive, costly responses.

Proven results in Sri Lanka, pilots progressing in Ghana Permia’s technology is already deployed at scale in Sri Lanka. In the UAE FoodTech Challenge winners announcement, organizers noted Permia is already covering over 15,000 hectares of palm plantations there, enabling early detection of stress factors like dehydration and pest infestations to help boost yields and reduce waste.

In an interview during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, Permia’s CEO Efrem De Paiva described how the platform combines AI, satellite imagery, drone data and bioacoustics sensing to detect pests and disease before visible symptoms appear, and highlighted multi-year deployment in Sri Lanka protecting millions of trees.

Building on that momentum, Permia is now advancing pilot discussions with corporate farms in Ghana, following successful outcomes supporting coconut and palm oil operations in Sri Lanka and the company’s Innovate UK supported work in-country.

“This award validates years of hard, field-first engineering, not just a lab concept,” said Efrem De Paiva, CEO of Permia Sensing. “Ghana is already a priority market for us. We are on the ground with respected research partners, and we are now moving from validation to scale, working with corporate farms and stakeholders to protect yields, reduce tree losses, and strengthen climate resilience for coconut and oil palm.”

About Permia Sensing
Permia Sensing is a London-based agritech company using AI, bioacoustic sensors, and aerial imaging to monitor palm tree health and detect pests and stress early, enabling targeted interventions that improve yields and reduce waste.

About the UAE FoodTech Challenge
Now in its third edition, the UAE FoodTech Challenge is a global competition that identifies and accelerates agri-food technology solutions to increase food production and reduce food loss and waste in climate-stressed environments. The 2026 competition was organized by the International Affairs Office at the UAE Presidential Court and Tamkeen, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, ne’ma (the UAE’s National Food Loss and Waste Initiative), and Silal.