The NFU will celebrate its centenary year with an event at the prestigious Bibliothèque Solvay at the heart of the European Union institutions in Brussels on Thursday (April 10).

The evening will showcase the best of British produce, including fruit and vegetables, and some of Europe’s leading decision-makers will also get the chance to toast the NFU’s hundredth birthday with a glass of Farmers Harvest, the ale brewed specially as part of the centenary celebrations.

NFU president Peter Kendall and former president Lord Plumb will address the event and urge European Commission officials and MEPs to continue their support of the NFU for the next 100 years. The NFU roadshow will also be on hand.

Maeve Whyte, director of the British Agriculture Bureau in Brussels, said: “This promises to be one of the events of the year in Brussels and provides the ideal opportunity to showcase all that’s great about British farming and growing and highlight the enormous contribution the NFU has made, and continues to make, to British and European agriculture.

“The NFU was one of the first organisations to recognise the extent to which the decision-making centre of gravity in British agriculture would shift from London to Brussels, and set up its Brussels office - jointly with the Scottish and Ulster farming unions - in 1972. As a result, Europe and the Common Agricultural Policy has been a major factor in the NFU’s work for over a third of its 100-year history.”

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