VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — September 3, 2015 — Russia needs to create its own Asia-Pacific hub to store, process and trade seafood and fish, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said on Thursday, the latest plan to increase self-reliance and boost growth.

Although already the world’s fifth-largest fish producer, Russia suffers from underdeveloped fishing ports and manufacturing infrastructure, poaching, and a lack of investment, relying heavily on processing in other countries.

President Vladimir Putin has said he wants the country to move towards greater self-reliance after the West hit Moscow with sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and Russia retaliated by banning most Western foods.

“Fish are our hard-currency export, our grain, oil and gas, our national heritage,” Tkachev told the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, on the Pacific coast.

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