Sir; Your Opinion column really hit the mark last week when you said that most consumers will not buy goods simply because they are British. Pity some of the great and good do not realise that. I have been in this business for over 20 years, both as a producer and a would-be exporter of British food products. And it became very clear to me at an early stage that service and price ­ both to the trade buyer and consumer ­ are what really count at the end of the day. But, while we are on the subject of Britishness, all this jingoistic talk, from Prince Charles downwards, leads me to ask whether we have forgotten that we are operating these days within a global market with all the fairness issues that involves. Come to that, we are all part of the great European Community. I wonder what the folk in Brussels think of this talk of Union Jacks and foreigner bashing. True, the British agrifood sector has had a pretty rough time since foot and mouth disease came onto the agenda way back in February. And our hard hit producers certainly need to be helped to recover from its effects on shopper confidence. But surely it would be wrong, in assisting them to regain business after the ravages of FMD, if we resorted to bashing anything from the other side of the Channel. By all means let's help hard pressed British farmers and producers. But we must not lose sight of the fact that consumer choice nowadays demands a fair sized place on the shelves for overseas producers, too. Prince Charles and all the other luminaries are right to highlight our producers' plight but even they should not lose sight of the fact that the average British consumer is increasingly going global where tastes are concerned. John Armitage Coventry {{LETTERS }}