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.
Global concern mounts over Iran war’s impact on food security
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.”