This year’s Royal Cornwall Show in June will live up to its “royal” reputation.

Not only will it be marking 50 years of the event being staged at the Wadebridge showground since it became its permanent home in 1960, marking the half-century - and the 51st show at the site - will be an equally significant appointment. For the first time in the show’s 217-year history, this year’s presidency will be a joint responsibility.

At the annual general meeting of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association in March, the appointment of their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, as joint presidents for 2010, is expected to be confirmed.

It will be the Duchess’s first involvement with the show, where her husband has been a fairly frequent visitor. As patron of the association, the prince has a special relationship with the county’s major three-day event.

He last visited the show in 2002 and before that he came in 1970, 1977, 1984 and 1996, in which year he was also president.

Chairman of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association, Jonathan Coode, welcomes the royal couple’s involvement and hopes their joint presidency will lead to their paying a visit to the show on one of the three days June 10-12.

The show’s strong and long-standing link with the royal family is, he said, “of enormous importance.

“We see it as a very great honour and we are delighted that the Duchess of Cornwall has agreed to become joint president for 2010.

“She has gained great respect for the interest she has taken in Cornish affairs to date and it is very welcome indeed that she has taken such a direct interest in the show, which is such a major element of Cornish life.”

He said the prince saw the importance of the show as an opportunity for Cornwall to show off its farming and its produce. “He has been an enormous encourager of adding value to farm products and has been a prime mover in that direction. One has only to see the success of our own food pavilion to understand how successful that process has been.”