SUGAR beet growers from Herefordshire and adjoining counties will be among thousands from across Europe flying to Brussels to lobby EU leaders on Monday.

During the one-day rally, they will be trying to impress on them that the proposed reform of the EU sugar regime must be reduced in severity if the growing and processing industry is not to be decimated.

Sugar beet plays a significant part in the West Midlands farm economy and under the reform, it is understood that prices for British growers would be cut by up to 42% and could reach 47% because of special pricing arrangements that apply in this country.

Some fear that if the plans went ahead in their full ferocity, they could be the death knell of the industry.

Not only growers but hauliers, factory workers and the supply trade would be hit.

Nigel Roper, chairman of the NFU West Midlands Sugar Board, said the growing and processing industry in the UK supported some 20,000 jobs and many of them could be lost.

Mr Roper, of Home Farm, Pencraig, near Ross-on-Wye, said the NFU did not believe the proposals, designed to help the poorest countries, would necessarily assist them in the way that some had claimed.

"We accept the need for reform but any price cuts need to be smaller and the reforms need to be introduced gradually over a transitional period of several years," he said.

Restructuring of the industry could also mean transporting beet across to the other factories in East Anglia and reduced transport allowances.

Mr Roper and other members of the West Midlands NFU European Liaison Group met two of the region's MEPs to discuss current challenges, including sugar beet reform, the EU budget and the working time directive.

Liz Lynne MEP said after the meeting: "We need clarity on the sugar beet issue and in particular, about the impact in the West Midlands."

Malcolm Harbour said it was already apparent the European Commission had work to do on the question of bioethanol which could have a vital role if the food and confectionery market for sugar collapsed.

"The price cuts proposed by the commission are too harsh and the transition too rapid."