Ex-World Bank President Urges China to Stop Hoarding Food and Fertilizer Amid Iran War Crisis

A former World Bank president told the BBC that China should stop hoarding food and fertilizer to ease a global supply crisis triggered by the Iran war.

David Malpass, who served as Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs under US President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019, spoke to the World Service's World Business Report on the eve of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing.

"They have the biggest world stockpile of food stuffs and of fertiliser," he said. "They can stop building their stockpiles."

His remarks come as countries worldwide race to secure fertilizer ahead of spring planting. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has badly disrupted shipments.

Malpass led the World Bank from 2019 to 2023. He said Beijing's claim to be a developing nation no longer holds up.

"They present themselves as a developing country when they're the second biggest economy in the world and in many ways rich," he said. "And yet they still have the pretence of being a developing country in the WTO and in the World Bank, and they could suspend that."

On the Iran ceasefire, which Trump on Monday called being on "massive life support," Malpass said the world should back the United States and push for a resolution.

"You can't have a rogue state with plutonium, and you can't block the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Malpass expressed hope that China would help resolve the Strait of Hormuz deadlock. He noted that free ship movement serves its economic interests: "China benefits from open waterways worldwide."

"They run the shipping lines, own the containers, and make huge profit from trade with the rest of the world. So, they would be a big loser if Iran in some way had control of the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Looking at the US economic outlook for ordinary Americans before Tuesday's April inflation data, Malpass predicted rising prices. "I expect some up, yes, prices will go up on many products," he said.