The National Farmers Union has launched a research paper that looks in detail at the challenges facing the UK farming industry when ten new countries join the European Uunion.

Forum Response: National Farmers Union

NFU president Tim Bennett said: "CAP reform has given British farmers greater flexibility in the marketplace, and enlargement has opened up the door in terms of what to sell to which country, and at what price.

"Enlargement will bring further export opportunities, with high economic growth rates a trait of new entrants over the next decade. Over time, an increasing number of people in the new member states will benefit from rising incomes. When this happens, they will look to buy more value-added and premium products such as luxury dairy products, cheese and poultry, thus offering British farmers a lucrative opportunity - but they will need to take on the challenge of other competitors to win these markets.

"Rather than seeing enlargement as a threat to their livelihoods, British farmers must embrace the change and rise to the challenge, viewing it as one of the most exciting chapters of British agriculture this century.

"If anything, it is efficient British farmers that are a threat to the new member countries."

Forum Response: Country Land and Business Association

Chief economist Prof. Allan Buckwell said: "The CLA, along with its counterpart farming and landowning organisations in western European countries, welcomes an enlarged EU. The prospect of the former Communist bloc countries in e