Pork, lamb and sheep producers are being told to drop investment in individual quality marks and back the Red Tractor instead.

The mark already appears on £5.5bn worth of food each year, but the NFU wants to boost that by uniting industry promotional funding behind it.

NFU president Peter Kendall is heading a new Red Tractor taskforce to spearhead the drive, which could spell the start of a slow death for marks such as the Quality Standard Mark on English red meat and the LEAF mark on fresh produce.

"There are too many quality marks out there and consumers are confused," said Kendall. "We need to bring as many other similar schemes under the Red Tractor's umbrella as possible and then put serious money behind promoting it."

Eblex and BPEX are being asked to back the idea, effectively diverting £11m per year of levypayers' money from supporting the Quality Standard Mark.

Eblex alone is spending an annual £7.5m to promote the mark with Beefy and Lamby, and could find it hard to walk away.

"We've built a very robust programme with QSM, and have had excellent results with the consumer and rising recognition," said Andrew Garvey, Eblex head of marketing. "It would be sad to lose the mark."

However, he conceded that the decision would rest with the new sector company for beef and lamb, which will replace Eblex next April under levy board reform.

April 2008 would be the ideal time to switch backing to the Red Tractor said Kevin Pearce, NFU head of food and farming. By then each sector company will have to have drawn up a business plan for spending its levy money for farmers.

"There's no coercion involved - we're just urging the boards to consider it," said Pearce. "We think it's the best way of correcting a market failure over the way we differentiate British farmers' standards from the rest of the world."

Defra minister of state Lord Rooker is known to be a keen supporter of the Red Tractor mark.

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