China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser, says former World Bank chief

David Malpass' comments come as US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping are due to meet in Beijing. China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser, says former World Bank chief Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. A farmer is drying Gong Cai strips, a vegetable of the lettuce family, in the fields on March 5, 2026 in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province of China. Former World Bank President David Malpass Then-World Bank President David Malpass at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) on 28 September, 2022 in Stanford, California. 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'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 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. China has itself halted fertiliser exports since March, citing the need to protect domestic supplies. Malpass, who ran the World Bank from 2019 to 2023, also said that Beijing's claim to be a developing nation is no longer credible. "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," Malpass added. The BBC has contacted the Chinese embassy in Washington for comment. On the Iran ceasefire, which Trump on Monday described as being on "massive life support", Malpass said the world should unite behind the United States and demand a resolution. "You can't have a rogue state with plutonium, and you can't block the Strait of Hormuz," he said. 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: "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. On the economic outlook for ordinary Americans ahead of Tuesday's US inflation data for April, Malpass said prices are heading higher. "I expect some up, yes, prices will go up on many products," he said. But he added "robust" jobs data showed the US economy was resilient. The BBC’s Michelle Fleury looks at what to expect from the gathering of top bankers and finance ministers. Andrew Bailey says he is "following closely" whether Trump will change US support for the institutions. The World Bank predicts global economic growth of 2.7% this year amid concerns living standards will struggle to improve. Woodworking shops have been transformed by tech to make tools safer and more precise. Trump's whirlwind visit to China is the most significant for years - but will it bear fruit? A total of 17 US executives are set to join the president on his visit, where he will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Investment bank JP Morgan expects oil to remain in the "low $100s" even if the Strait of Hormuz were to reopen next month. The first US presidential visit to China in almost 10 years will test a fragile tariff truce.