Food and farming groups are turning to Nick Brown in their bid to persuade trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers to enforce his legally binding trading code across all multiples ­ and not just the top five. The draft code, which some retail sources have dubbed "draconian and naive", is set to become one of the major issues during an agri-food summit called by Brown at MAFF's Westminster headquarters next week. The session, attended by senior figures from across the food chain, follows a farm crisis meeting attended by Tony Blair in March. Its central focus will be on Brown's ongoing efforts to encourage food chain co-operation as well as assistance for the hard-pressed farming community. However, suppliers argue that given Brown was the instigator of the earlier voluntary code, which would have been applied to every chain, irrespective of size, he is the "best man" to persuade Byers to widen the brief. They believe Byers must enforce it across the whole multiple sector rather than just Asda, Safeway, Sainsbury, Somerfield and Tesco. As one put it on Thursday: "It's a nonsense. Twenty four multiples were originally probed by the Competition Commission so surely they should be part of the process?" And farmers' leaders are also believed to be angry that they have not been sent copies of the draft. NFU head of marketing, Helen Lo said on Thursday: "From what we have heard, the draft code has obviously been written by someone with very little knowledge of the food industry. "We don't want a document that is tied up in legalities, so we want to be part of the consultation process." Recently the top five have sent their reactions to the draft to the Office of Fair Trading and talks with suppliers are likely to begin soon. Byers has set a fast track three months agenda for the code to be completed. - See Opinion, page 18. {{NEWS }}