You could almost spot industry cynics mingling with goggle-eyed tourists in Whitehall last summer when Tony Blair beamed for the cameras and gave the NFU's red tractor farm assurance mark its send-off. "Here we go again, another daft symbol to join all the others. There'll soon be no room on the packs for the product description." Or: "I'll give it six months. They'll never make it work." The cries from the middle ranks of certain multiple chains were all too predictable. For the "executives at the sharp end" were giving a frosty reception to NFU president Ben Gill's dream, despite the support voiced in public by most of their CEOs. And even some of his colleagues were privately having doubts. Yet, a few months on and Gill was entitled to his moment of glory in London this week. Ten multiple chains are using the logo in more than 5,000 stores. Add the significant product links set to be announced during the coming weeks and that's not a bad answer to those who said the tractor would never get into second gear. Ultimately, of course, the Gill dream sees the symbol pulling together the plethora of assurance marks currently gracing British produce. And while fulfilment of that idea is still some way off, at least the NFU and a large supportive slice of retail grocery should be given credit for getting behind it. For, as many a marketing person knows, it traditionally takes piles of hard cash to gain trade and consumer acceptance for a scheme of this magnitude. The NFU has done it with persistence rather than pounds, given the small budget which was available for the cash-strapped producers to develop the idea. It sounds trite to say British farmers and British grocers need each other. But the tractor is tangible proof of the new mood of togetherness which has been built over recent years between the NFU and the retailers. Surely the perfect retort to the notion in certain areas of the media and Whitehall's darker corners that the farmers and the grocers will always be at each other's throats. Clive Beddall, Editor {{OPINION }}