SOMA Newsletter

Author

Soma Mater
March 09, 2026

Welcome to the SOMA MATER weekly newsletter.

At SOMA MATER, we specialize in delivering comprehensive research and advisory services with a focus on Food & Water Security and Net Zero Transition in the MENA Region. In order to support our subscribing clients in navigating these topics and understanding the regional narrative, we produce monthly Food and Water Security and Net Zero Transition Intelligence Reports, along with our in-depth analysis and insights.

This weekly newsletter highlights the top 3 stories from the past week in Food and Water Security and Net Zero transition, along with SOMA MATER's analysis and perspective.

How do countries like the UK and Egypt approach energy policy—and what impact does it have on local food production?

How are the UAE and Saudi Arabia approaching conservation as a strategic investment in natural capital?

How could shifting business models make shrimp farming scalable in regions like the UAE?

Sustainably yours,

The SOMA team

When The Lights Go Out: How Energy Bills Rewrite the Rules of Food Production

#FoodandWaterSecurity

The United Kingdom's indoor farming sector struggles as electricity standing charges are set to increase by 60% starting April 2026. For Thanet Earth, one of the UK's largest greenhouse tomato producers, this adds an additional £900,000 annually to energy costs. Indoor production demands substantial energy for light, warmth, and carbon dioxide, making it vulnerable to rising energy costs.

This impacts UK indoor growers nationwide as they are forced to raise prices or shut down production, ultimately being felt by the consumers. This impacts profitability and growers’ ability to compete. Other energy-intensive sectors like steel, chemicals, cement, and glass receive government support and exemptions from standing charge increases, but food producers do not. This is despite operating with the same energy intensity as subsidized sectors.

Meanwhile, Egypt is considering farmland protection a matter of "national security". Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered the suspension of utility services to sites with illegal construction on agricultural land. The urgency is justified: between 1992 and 2015, 74,600 hectares of fertile Nile Delta agricultural land was lost to urban expansion, and under current projections, 87,000 hectares will transition from agricultural to urban areas by 2030. Both underscore how food security increasingly hinges on policy decisions that either enable or constrain domestic production capacity.

SOMA’s Perspective:

The UK and Egypt stories reveal a shared vulnerability: agriculture's dependence on energy policy. In the UK (where agriculture is mature), growers struggle with the rising electricity costs while trying to say in business. In Egypt, underpriced utilities are incentivizing urban sprawl onto fertile land. This juxtaposition highlights the abuses of energy rates on both sides of the extremes.

Sources:

Heat-Proof Reefs: How the Gulf Turns Climate Crisis Into Conservation Strategy

#NetZeroTransition

Since 2023, 84% of the world's coral reef ecosystems have experienced the most extensive coral bleaching event ever recorded, affecting at least 82 countries. When ocean temperatures rise, corals expel the microscopic algae that provide up to 90% of their energy, causing them to turn white and starve. This crisis is so severe that scientists had to create 3 entirely new levels on the global bleaching alert scale.

Yet in the UAE, corals survive. The Arabian Gulf's summer sea surface temperatures can exceed 35 degrees Celsius, making UAE corals extremely thermally tolerant. NYU Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Arabian Centre for Climate and Environmental Sciences completed the UAE's first coral heat-stress survey. The results revealed differences in thermal tolerance between UAE reef systems, creating a map for targeted restoration that supports the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi's goal of restoring 4 million corals by 2030.

Saudi Arabia applies a similar logic. After 122 million tourists in 2025 generated $80 billion, deserts, reefs, and archaeological sites are treated as productive capital requiring reinvestment. The Saudi Green Initiative already mobilized over $188 billion across 85+ initiatives, planted 115 million trees, and rewilded 7,500 endangered animals (Figure 1). Destinations like AlUla use AI and the EarthRanger platform to monitor wildlife and adjust visitor routes. The next phase expects to unlock $11 billion in private-sector participation, including $1.7 billion for tourism projects.

Figure 1

SOMA’s Perspective:

Coral reefs buffer coastlines, sustain fish stocks and commercial fishing, and anchor tourism economies. Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia understand their value, and as our region’s weather continues to impact tourist areas, these countries are treating this natural capital with the same discipline applied to economic assets: protect what generates value, and reinvest accordingly.

Sources:

Shell Game: Startups Trading Tanks for Handshakes

#FoodandWaterSecurity

Atarraya, a US-Mexico shrimp farming startup, is preparing to pilot its production system in the UAE with Silal. It will test whether its technology can adapt to desert conditions and if successful, supply at least 5% of UAE shrimp demand. The UAE imports most of its shrimp despite having one of the highest per capita consumption rates globally, and authorities seek to develop domestic production capacity.

This reflects a shift towards asset-light partnership models. After shutting down its Indianapolis facility, Atarraya has moved away from owning farms directly. The traditional venture capital model proved incompatible with aquaculture, leading Atarraya to reduce capital requirements by 70% through redesigned tanks and a focus on regional "master franchisor" partnerships. For the UAE, margins are high and energy costs are low, making the economics compelling.

The company is exploring integrated agriculture opportunities. Shrimp and tomatoes require similar temperature ranges of 26–28°C, enabling co-location with greenhouse operations. The microbial biomass (biofloc) from shrimp tanks can be processed into organic fertilizer, and has been proven to outperform commercial fertilizer for tomatoes and corn.

SOMA’s Perspective:

Traditional shrimp trawling can lead to bycatch-to-shrimp ratios of 5:1 in temperate areas—meaning 5 kg of marine organisms are caught for every 1 kg of shrimp. This brings significant environmental impacts. As climate pressures intensify and wild fisheries continue their decline, partnerships like this demonstrate how food security needs technology transfer models that can scale production without replicating capital-intensive structures.

Sources:

SOMA MATER is writing Intelligence Reports on the topics of Food and Water Security and Net Zero Transition. If you’d like to know more, contact us through the link below:

https://wkf.ms/3BmPiPo