MINERALNYE VODY, October 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls to steadily expand presence of domestic agricultural producers on internal and international markets of agricultural products.

"There is a need to consistently work on broadening presence of Russian producers on the domestic market and exploring foreign ones," the head of state said.

"To do so, there is a need to reinforce the base of the Russian agro-industrial sector, its human resources and production potential, equip farms with modern machinery, improve labor productivity and promote domestic developments in the sphere of selection, genetics, biotechnologies and output of high quality ecofriendly and safe products," the President said.

There is a need to create modern infrastructure, logistics, including the railway one, and build up capacities of seaports, terminals and storages, Putin said. "Many problems are still unresolved in this aspect," he added.

As of 2017 year-end, national self-sufficiency figures were over 170% for grain, 153.1% for vegetable oil, 105.2% for sugar, 93% for meat and meat products, 87% for potatoes, 85.9% for vegetables, and 82% for milk and dairy products, Putin said. "The self-sufficiency level of our country is still not optimal in respect of a range of positions: this particularly applies to vegetables and fruit, dairy products and beef," he added.