Cash cuts have forced Food from Britain to remove an entire layer of senior management.

Three directors from the government-funded food marketing agency will lose their jobs in "changes to organisation and staffing". They are Simon Waring marketing and international management director, Charlotte Lawson, business and UK services director, and Anne Kynaston, finance and administration director.

The cuts were unavoidable, said FFB chairman Lady Sylvia Jay. "Faced with continuing business challenges and further public funding reductions, a small organisation like FFB should operate with as few management layers as possible," she said.

It was important to streamline the organisation in light of expected reductions in public funding, added an FFB spokeswoman.

"We will be leaner and fitter going into 2008," she said. "There shouldn't be significant changes within the group as clients will talk to the same people whether at events or international offices."

Leaving dates for the three have yet to be agreed, she added.

The job losses come as FFB braces itself for further funding cuts. "There hasn't been a final decision on the size of the cut but we want FFB to consider the scope for a grant reduction," said a spokesman for Defra, the government department that funds it. "Staff matters are for the group to decide but we will fund redundancies."

The additional £1m the agency had received annually since 2003 to promote programmes of support for regional food would also be axed next year, he added.

The funding cut will be a huge setback for John Adams, the newly-appointed interim CEO. Adams, who replaced David McNair at FFB last month, was charged with lobbying Defra and ministers to support British food.

Earlier this year England's eight regional food bodies lobbied ministers for more cash because they faced losing annual funding, believed to be about £400,000, from Food from Britain. And £400,000 of Food from Britain's £5m budget from Defra was cut last December.

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