{"id":140723,"date":"2026-05-12T07:02:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/china-should-stop-hoarding-food-and-fertiliser-says-former-world-bank-chief\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:02:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:02:48","slug":"china-should-stop-hoarding-food-and-fertiliser-says-former-world-bank-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/china-should-stop-hoarding-food-and-fertiliser-says-former-world-bank-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser, says former World Bank chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former World Bank president has told the BBC that China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser to ease a global supply crisis caused by the Iran war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Malpass, who also served as Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs under US President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019, was speaking to the World Service\u2019s World Business Report on the eve of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the biggest world stockpile of food stuffs and of fertiliser,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can stop building their stockpiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments come as nations around the world scramble to secure fertiliser supplies ahead of spring planting, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz severely disrupting shipments.<\/p>\n

China has halted exports of several types of fertiliser since March, citing the need to protect domestic supplies.<\/p>\n

This came on top of restrictions that have been steadily been put in place since 2021.<\/p>\n

Last year, China accounted for around 25% of global output of fertiliser, with exports totalling more than $13bn (\u00a39.6bn).<\/p>\n

Malpass, who ran the World Bank from 2019 to 2023, also said that Beijing\u2019s claim to be a developing nation is no longer credible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey present themselves as a developing country when they\u2019re the second biggest economy in the world and in many ways rich,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet they still have the pretence of being a developing country in the WTO and in the World Bank, and they could suspend that,\u201d Malpass added.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina is committed to maintaining the stability of global food and fertilizer markets,\u201d Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC told the BBC in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe root causes behind the current disruptions in global food and fertilizer supply chains are crystal clear; this blame cannot be shifted onto China,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In response to Malpass\u2019 comment on China\u2019s status as a developing country, Liu said \u201cChina is universally recognized as the largest developing country \u2013 a designation grounded in ample factual evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUpholding its status as a developing country is a legitimate right of China,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On the Iran ceasefire, which Trump on Monday described as being on \u201cmassive life support\u201d, Malpass said the world should unite behind the United States and demand a resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have a rogue state with plutonium, and you can\u2019t block the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Malpass, was hopeful that China would help find a resolution to the deadlock in the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the free movement of ships was in its economic interest: \u201cChina benefits from open waterways worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey 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\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

On the economic outlook for ordinary Americans ahead of Tuesday\u2019s US inflation data for April, Malpass said prices are heading higher. \u201cI expect some up, yes, prices will go up on many products,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he added \u201crobust\u201d jobs data showed the US economy was resilient.<\/p>\n

The post China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser, says former World Bank chief<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former World Bank president has told the BBC that China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser to ease a global supply crisis caused by the Iran war. David Malpass, who also served as Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs under US President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019, was speaking to the World Service\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}