Cambodians are no longer allowed to sell or export human breast milk, after a US firm attracted controversy. Women are paid about US$7 a day to pump breast milk for export to the US.
Cambodia's cabinet ordered the health ministry on Tuesday to "take actions to immediately prevent the purchasing and exporting of breast milk from mothers from Cambodia," according to a ministry letter.
"Although Cambodia is poor and (life is) difficult, it is not at the level that it will sell breast milk from mothers."
The order came after it temporarily halted last week the US-based Ambrosia Labs from operating in the country on health and organ trafficking grounds.
It paid Cambodian women in capital Phnom Penh to pump breast milk, which it then shipped to the US to be pasteurized and sold for US$20 per 5 oz (18 euros for 147 ml).
A "Vice Magazine" report found about 50 women were employed by the company and were paid about US$7 a day.
The company's customers were American mothers who could not produce enough of their own breast milk or who wanted to supplement their babies' diets. It was started by a former Mormon missionary two years ago.