WYRE Forest farmers fear disaster if they have to cut back on sugar beet growing because of a reshuffle in world trade policy.

They claim proposed European changes could make the traditional sugar beet growing sector in Wyre Forest farming unprofitable. And they also forecast that if they have to cut back on production it could spell the end of British Sugar in Kidderminster.

After meeting Wyre Forest MP David Lock on Friday, Kidderminster farmer Mike Gough, who is also sugar beet growers' supervisor at the factory at Stourport Road, said a campaign had started to lobby MPs and MEPs nationwide.

Farmers were protesting at the European Commission's plans to lift import restrictions on sugar from Afro-Caribbean countries.

Mr Gough, who devotes nearly 100 acres of his farm to sugar beet, said the changes could mean a cut in the amount British farmers would be allowed to produce by between 25 and 40 per cent.

Coming after a one-third fall in price over five years, "it would not be worth growing" he said.

"It is a very big worry in this area coming on top of other severe pressures on farming."

Worcestershire National Farmers Union arable committee representative James Bakewell, who grows 90 acres of sugar beet on his Hartlebury farm, said: "Sugar beet growing is very important in Wyre Forest. It is not by accident that British Sugar has its factory here. The crop represents about half of our total income so you can imagine the sugar trading issue is a serious worry.

"Sugar beet is one of the only profitable areas we have left. If the growers have to cut production so will British Sugar and as the smallest plant in the country it will be the first to go."

Mr Lock said his meeting with the farmers was part of a continuing dialogue on the issue which he was already taking up with the Government.