ST. PETERSBURG, June 6. /TASS/. Venezuela offers joint fish catching near the Atlantic coast of the republic to Russia, Minister of Agriculture and Lands Wilmar Alfredo Castro Soteldo told TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

"About 200,000 metric tons of fish products can be caught near the Atlantic coast of Venezuela. Russia has an excellent fishing fleet. We could jointly catch fish here. We could supply a portion of the catch to Russia, to feed the population of our countries," the minister said.

Venezuela is proactively developing its agricultural sector now, he added. Corn, sorgo, cacao trees and coffee are being planted now in the eastern region of Venezuela, where huge oil and gas reserves are located and nothing had been planted there earlier, Soteldo said.