Kuwait calls for Islamic food fund to feed poor

FOOD CRISIS: Kuwait said it would donate $100 million towards a fund to help feed the poor in Islamic countries. (Getty Images)

Kuwait, a Gulf Arab oil exporter, proposed on Tuesday the creation of a fund to provide basic foods to poor people in Islamic countries and pledged to donate $100 million.

"Kuwait... is offering an initiative to establish a fund for decent life in Islamic countries to provide basic foodstuff for those who are in need quickly," the ruler Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told an Islamic economic conference.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that rising food prices have developed into a global crisis.

Concerns about food security mounted this month as rice prices hit records in Asia and the US warned that staples for the world's hungry were getting much more expensive.

"Kuwait announces its contribution of $100 million to launch this fund," Sheikh Sabah said, adding that the proposed fund would also contribute to programmes to increase agricultural production.

In Kuwait, the world's seventh-largest oil exporter, inflation hit a record 9.5% in January as housing costs jumped 16.1% and food prices rose 7.7%.

RELATED: Kuwaiti inflation hits record high

Several Arab and Muslim capitals have witnessed protests by people demanding government intervention to ease the impact of rises in the prices of foods. (Reuters)

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