Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to warn the world is "sleepwalking into a global food crisis" following the upheaval driven by the Iran conflict.
Ms Cooper will sound the alarm over the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz this morning, pointing out the crisis has paused the worldwide distribution of fertilisers.
As a result, some 45 million people are at risk of falling into acute food insecurity if the war is not resolved by the middle of the year, the World Food Programme predicted.
Ms Cooper will advise the reopening of the strait to dodge the looming crisis to allow fertiliser through the key maritime passageway.
The Foreign Secretary will say: "We cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because one country has hijacked an international shipping lane.
"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 cost of living pressures."
Tehran blockaded the waterway, which runs between the Islamic Republic and the Arabian peninsula, after the US and Iran conducted aerial bombing raids against Iran.
The closure sent global oil prices surging – and now poses a threat to Britain's food security.
Ms Cooper will deliver a speech in London today
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Several of the world's largest fertiliser factories, thanks to the strait's closure, has threatened to send food prices skyrocketing.
The Foreign Office has warned that delivery of "criticial emergency aid" could be necessary for developing nations if the waterway was not opened soon.
At the Global Partnerships Conference in London today, Ms Cooper will set out her department's approach to development - while the Government cuts foreign aid funding.
The summit, which will be jointly hosted by the UK and South Africa, will set out a partnered approach and tehnical advice to solve the impending crisis.
IRAN CRISIS LATEST:
Ms Cooper will say that the strait must be reopened
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Development Minister Baroness Jenny Chapman said: "Countries want to have more control, move beyond aid, attract investment, strengthen their own health and education systems, and take charge of their own futures.
"Traditional development finance alone cannot meet that call, indeed it never could. Nor can it respond to the scale of today’s challenges.
"We need to bring new ideas and a broader coalition of partners to the table."
Back in 2025, Britain said it would reduce its target for foreign aid spending to 0.3 per cent by 2027 to boost defence spending.
Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage vowed that his party would cut foreign aid by 90 per cent, reducing it to £1billion a year.
But the former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, told the People's Channel that any cut to foreign aid was a mistake.
He previously told GB News: "I firmly believe that it's a strategic error of considerable proportion to have cut our overseas aid budget from 0.7 per cent of GDP to just 0.3 per cent, which it is now, because the money that the UK was spending around the world was helping prevent other problems.
"Problems which result in migration."