Phnom Penh - Cambodia's overtures to corner the rice export market in the Gulf had been reciprocated by Kuwait, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said Wednesday as a Kuwaiti delegation was scheduled to return this month for further negotiations. "A Kuwaiti delegation will arrive back here on August 20 to continue the talks begun during the Kuwaiti prime minister's visit," Chan Sarun said by telephone but declined to give further details.
Cambodia has been exporting low-grade rice to African countries, such as Guinea, but is muscling its way toward being a major regional rice exporter.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Saba ended a three-day visit to Cambodia Tuesday, during which he discussed swapping his country's technical assistance for arable land for cultivation of quality rice for Kuwait.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that he would visit the Gulf states of Kuwait and Qatar in January to discuss rice exports in a bid to clinch Gulf markets.
"Those countries have oil but no rice," Hun Sen said in a speech carried on state radio during a rice-planting ceremony about 40 kilometres south-west of Phnom Penh. "I think the Gulf can become our rice market."
Cambodia welcomed cash, not credit, Hun Sen said.
"We are a poor country, so when countries buy our rice they should pay, not owe money," the premier said.
That should not be a problem for oil-rich Qatar and Kuwait, both of whose prime ministers have visited Cambodia this year.
By 2015, the Cambodian government said, it hopes to export 10 million tons of the staple per year.
