NFU President Peter Kendall and Coldiretti President Sergio Marini met on Friday in Rome to discuss their respective positions and to find common ground.

Mr Kendall said: "The Coldiretti is very much with us in arguing for a policy geared to the primary role of farmers as competitive food producers. Coldiretti also attach the same priority as we do to increased production and greater food security, and fail to understand how this can be achieved by taking millions of hectares of land out of production.

"We are both concerned that the EU Commission's current proposals for greening the CAP would undermine competitiveness and could damage production. We agreed that the current proposals must be improved, in the context of a framework that provides fairness between member states and is affordable to farmers.

"Both our organisations will be lobbying the Agricultural Council and the European Parliament for changes to the CAP reform proposals to ensure agriculture remains competitive and can grow economically.

"We also want to see the EU making genuine progress towards a supply chain that operates more fairly for the producer and prevents abuses of power."