U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper warned that the world is on the brink of a “global food crisis” amid the continued disruption of the Strait of Hormuz.
“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.”
The British lawmaker framed the reopening of the Strait as an urgent priority that must happen within weeks to prevent further damage to agricultural markets.
“Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz while the agriculture 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,” she added, echoing concerns raised by Prime Minister Keir Starmer over U.K. households facing the economic impact of the Iran war.
Cooper went on to press for the “immediate” reopening of the Strait, through which around a fifth of global oil production flows.
Iran's continued chokehold on the transit of oil and gas has upended the global economy, causing major instability to energy prices around the world and prompting governments to rethink their own energy production.
Per estimates by the United Nations, global fuel prices are now more than double the 2025 average.
In the U.S., the national average for gasoline has risen to $4.53 per gallon, up nearly 50 cents from just a month ago, and over $1.55 more than before the start of the war, cites the American Automobile Association.
According to the Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel-tracking data, at least 54 ships transited through the Strait of Hormuz between May 11-17, compared to just 25 in the previous week. This comes after Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported Tehran was allowing passage to some Chinese vessels.
It's still significantly less than the 138 vessels that typically passed through the Strait each day prior to the war, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center.
TIME has been unable to independently verify these figures.
With no clear end in sight for the Iran war, the U.K. government is far from the only body urging for the resumption of free-flowing trade via the Strait.
The Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe previously warned that “the Iran war has turned the Strait of Hormuz into a food-security chokepoint,” posing particular danger to Arab countries because many are structurally dependent on food imports, face water scarcity, and are “exposed to maritime, fuel, and fertilizer volatility.”
Christian Reynolds, a reader in food policy at the Centre for Food Policy at University of London, tells TIME that global production of “big crops” relies heavily on “synthetic fertilizer” successfully passing through the Strait.
Reflecting on the damage that has already been done by the disruption to vital trade, Reynolds says much of the focus has now shifted from prevention to mitigation.
“At this point we must understand how we reduce the amount of food insecurity with the situation that's unfolding now, it's damage control rather than damage prevention,” he explains.
The International Energy Agency, which earlier this year described the closure of the Strait as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, has also warned that shortages of LNG could disrupt fertilizer production.
Meanwhile, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Maximo Torero warned in April that “the clock is ticking” for dangerous spikes in food prices, particularly for poorer countries whose crop calendar
Reynolds compares the current disruption to the shock created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and says poorer countries are again likely to suffer the greatest consequences.
“This is a different choke point in the global economy, but it is just as vital as the Russia-Ukraine choke point,” he says. “Right now, we are walking into something that is leaving the global poor in a state of food insecurity with food prices set to rise.”
In fact, the World Food Programme estimates that “almost 45 million more people could fall into acute food insecurity or worse if the conflict does not end by the middle of the year, and if oil prices remain above USD 100 a barrel.”
However, Reynolds argues the growing food insecurity crisis cannot be blamed solely on the Strait, pointing also to climate pressures and shrinking aid budgets, meaning “we have less infrastructure to respond to this.”
The British government announced in 2025 that U.K. aid would be “gradually reduced” from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% of GNI in 2027, while the Trump Administration has dismantled USAID.
Still, global efforts are focused on reopening the Strait and freeing up the vital trade that flows through the crucial passage.
Last week, the U.K. and France convened defence ministers and representatives from multiple countries to show their support to a "strictly defensive” multinational mission to secure the bypass of the Strait once the war has ended.
Cooper is also hosting a Global Partnerships Conference in London, intended to bring together governments, businesses, philanthropies, and international organizations to discuss how to address the growing agricultural crisis.
Strait of Hormuz used as geopolitical bargaining chip
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright last week accused Iran of holding “the world economy hostage” but said that the Strait will likely reopen “sometime this summer, at latest.”
He pointed to the U.S. blockade and did not rule out the possibility of the U.S. military forcing the reopening of the waterway.
However, disagreements over naval navigation in the Strait remain a core stumbling block of the stalled peace talks between Washington and Tehran amid the fragile U.S.-Iran cease-fire.
Iran wants recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait—a term the U.S. has flatly rejected.
On Tuesday, Tehran announced a new body, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, intended to oversee and charge vessels that seek passage through the Strait.
But Trump, talking to reporters, reemphasized: “That’s not their [Iran’s] Strait. That’s international waterways.”
He criticized Iran for using the crucial waterway as a “military weapon,” referring to how Tehran has repeatedly used the passage as a geopolitical bargaining chip during times of tension.
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