The participation of private marketing agents in these two regions is mainly in local markets. Private agents supply about 80% of the local consumption demand, handling small quantities of 3-5 mt per agent per year. About 150 rice mills serve the Hanoi market. Farmers directly market 36% to con- sumers in the Central Region, 26% in the RRD, and less than 4% in the MRD. A wider range of different marketing chan- nels is used in the RRD than in the MRD including: (1) farmer-consumer, (2) farmer miller-consumer, (3) farmer- food company-consumer, (4) farmer-private trader-food company-consumer,and (5) farmer-private trader-retailer- consumer.Estimated MRD farm sale outlets in 1996 were 10% to state assembly, 80% to private wholesale assemblers, 8% to retail assemblers and 2% to millers (Kheim et al.1996.) The net marketing margin varied from 5% to 10% in 1996. Processing costs ofstate-owned enterprises ranged from $43 to $55 per mt, about 4 to 5 times higher than for private millers.