China, which accounted for roughly 25 percent of global fertiliser output last year according to the BBC, should stop stockpiling food and fertiliser or risk tightening global markets, former World Bank president David Malpass said. Malpass, who led the World Bank from 2019 to 2023, made the remarks to the World Service’s World Business Report on the eve of the Trump-Xi summit and urged Beijing to halt its build-up of strategic supplies. His comments come as several countries have moved to secure fertiliser ahead of spring planting and as China has curbed certain fertiliser exports since March to protect domestic supplies. The dispute over whether Beijing is hoarding or protecting its own food security has become a flashpoint in broader debates about global supply and trade rules.

David Malpass told the World Service’s World Business Report that China should stop hoarding food and fertiliser so global markets can stabilise. He repeated a wider complaint that Beijing’s behaviour in trade and commodity markets is feeding shortages elsewhere, and he questioned whether China can continue to claim developing-country status in trade and finance bodies while wielding such economic weight.

Why Malpass warned now

Malpass made the comments as leaders prepared to meet at the Trump-Xi summit, a moment several reports flagged as the immediate context for his intervention. Multiple accounts link his remarks to a scramble for inputs that matters for this season’s planting and for global food prices. Governments and market participants are said to be racing to secure fertiliser supplies ahead of spring planting, creating a short-term pressure point for crop production in several regions.

China has halted exports of several types of fertiliser since March, a move officials described as aimed at protecting domestic supplies. Experts and officials point to disrupted grain flows linked to the Russia-Ukraine war and to rising fertiliser demand as key drivers of higher food insecurity and tighter markets worldwide. One report noted both the export curbs and higher global demand as contributing factors in recent weeks.

Competing narratives and the data

The central claim is contested. Some U.S. Officials and analysts publicly accuse China of buying and stockpiling grain and fertiliser at a time when other countries need supplies. U.S. Ambassador Jim O’Brien said Washington would like to see China act like its size in helping to stabilise global food markets. That argument frames recent Chinese trade measures and buying patterns as a form of hoarding that worsens shortages for import-dependent countries.

Mastheads

Beijing rejects that framing. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC told the BBC that China is committed to market stability and insisted the root causes of global disruptions lie elsewhere. State-affiliated outlets have argued China supplies more than 95 percent of its own grain needs and therefore doesn't need to hoard on international markets.

Independent Chinese economists quoted in coverage have suggested that rising imports were used to meet domestic supply gaps rather than to build speculative global stockpiles.

Concrete data in the coverage is uneven, and some important figures come from single outlets. The BBC reported that China accounted for roughly 25 percent of global fertiliser output and that it exported more than US$13 billion worth of fertiliser last year. Those numbers are frequently cited in discussions about the country’s market position and how its policy choices ripple through global supply chains. A separate claim, reported by News.az and not corroborated elsewhere in the bundle, linked recent shipment disruptions to a closure of the Strait of Hormuz. That account stands alone in the set of sources.

Malpass also said Beijing’s continued claim to developing-country status in trade and finance institutions is no longer credible. He reiterated that position while urging China to suspend what he described as a pretence. His argument ties trade behaviour to wider debates over rules, access to concessional finance, and how institutions treat the world’s largest economies.

Analysts say the immediate variables to watch are fertiliser availability, export controls and seasonal demand from spring planting, all of which could tighten markets if buying and curbs persist.

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He made the appeal on the eve of the Trump-Xi summit, saying immediate Chinese action to end stockpiling would ease pressure on global fertiliser and food markets.

This article was created with AI assistance.