I CAN'T help but wonder how many customers, when taking food off the shelves, know what the little red tractor logo stands for.

It is claimed that the logo is stuck on the packaging of £10 billion worth of retail food covering well over 500 companies.

But from my own bit of market research, chatting to our non-farming friends, more than half of them still don't know what it is supposed to represent.

Few realise that it is an assurance that the grub within packaging carrying the red tractor label, is produced and packaged within the British Isles.

There has always been confusion with food carrying the Union flag as it could have been produced at the North Pole or even out of Mongolia.

All that has to happen to imported food for it to carry the Union flag is for it to be packaged in the British Isles, no matter where in the world it comes from.

Although the little red tractor folk are patting themselves on the back that after a decade of promotion, 50 per cent of their customers know what they stand for, quite frankly I don't call it a success story.

Maybe those of us who farm are probably all at fault as I honestly believe we could do far more for the little red tractor.