Over the past few years New Zealand agricultural producers and policy makers have been increasingly alarmed at large increases in marketing costs of agricultural products, particularly of those products destined for export. In accord with this alarm, the Agricultural Economics Research Unit has seen fit to increase its involvement in this area. The current report is the result of an Agricultural Economics Research Unit study commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The study has been designed to investigate trends in marketing costs for major export products; the present report refers to wool marketing costs. The Economics Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has provided financial assistance to enable this study to be undertaken.