Kuwait has leased rice fields in Cambodia and plans to import food from the Asian country, a government official said in remarks published on Tuesday. Soaring food prices are a key driver of inflation in the desert state, hitting 11 percent in April and May.
Kuwait imports most of its food and has said it wants to invest in chicken and other farms as part of a national food plan. Daily Awan quoted Foreign Minister Undersecetary Khaled al-Jarallah, who is with Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah on an Asian tour, as saying the rice fields would meet the Gulf Arab state's food demand.