Cooper: Free up fertiliser supplies within weeks to avert global food crisis

Global fertiliser supplies must be freed up within weeks to avoid a disaster of failing harvests and rising food prices, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday.

The war in Iran has frozen shipments of fertiliser through the Strait of Hormuz, creating a supply crunch that has already damaged farming in the UK, Europe and the United States and is hitting developing nations hardest, where farmers cannot afford the higher prices being charged.

“The world is sleepwalking into a global food crisis,” Cooper said. “We cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because one country has hijacked an international shipping lane.”

Spring is the critical planting season; if farmers in the northern hemisphere cannot secure fertiliser now, the damage will unfold over the next year, she warned.

“Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz while the agricultural clock is ticking shows why we need urgent global pressure to get the strait reopened, fertiliser and fuel moving, and ease the costs of living pressures,” Cooper said ahead of a conference in London on overseas aid and development.

“This crisis is affecting developed and developing countries, the private and public sectors alike,” she added. “It shows why we need a new approach to global partnerships, to drive international development to prevent crises in the first place. The world has changed faster than the international system can support it.”

The Global Partnerships conference, co-hosted by the UK and South African governments and backed by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, aims to help governments, private-sector investors and civil society find new ways to collaborate.

Despite rising prices and mounting debt in developing nations, many wealthy countries are cutting overseas aid. The UK reduced its aid from 0.5% of gross national income under the previous government – itself a cut from 0.7% under the last Labour government – to 0.3%, while the US under President Donald Trump has dismantled the USAID agency.

The World Food Programme estimates that nearly 45 million more people could fall into acute food insecurity if the Iran conflict does not end by mid-2025.

Cooper said overseas aid served the UK’s national interest. “Instability abroad affects us here at home, from energy prices to food security. Building resilience abroad makes the UK stronger,” she said.

Britain’s intelligence chiefs warned in a report – only partially published by the government – that the collapse of key ecosystems in developing countries, driven in part by the climate crisis, would have devastating impacts on UK national security. The government has not publicly discussed the report or its response.

Climate finance, which helps developing nations protect ecosystems and build resilience to extreme weather, has been cut to £2 billion a year over the next three years.

Jenny Chapman, the minister for development at the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office, told the Guardian that partnerships with the private sector could more than double available aid.

“We are absolutely not backing away from our contributions and our responsibilities,” she said. “We can get more climate finance by moving the way work on it. We need to make a lot more impact than we have done.”

At the conference, British International Investment – a agency using public money to invest in the private sector and a co-host – will announce £4.6 billion for climate investment in emerging markets. The UK will also provide $250 million for the African Development Bank and increase its shareholding in the Inter-American Development Bank.

Cooper will announce a new health partnership to support children injured in Gaza, more support for health systems to develop medicines and vaccines faster, and a £200 million investment in science and technology. The UK will assume the presidency of the G20 group of developed and developing economies next.

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said, “Unlawful attacks by the US and Israel on Iran have killed, injured and displaced civilians across the region. Retaliation from Iran, which includes the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, is driving up the cost of food and fuel and putting basic necessities out of reach for millions of people. We urgently need a permanent and lasting ceasefire, including an immediate end to all hostilities across the wider region. UK aid cuts – set to be the steepest of any G7 country this year – also risk deepening global instability and inequalities. The government must reverse the cuts and start taxing the super-rich and biggest polluters to help pay for the fight against poverty and inequality.”