In recent years, U.S. public policymakers have attempted to redirect the grain exporting network from a quasi market-oriented system toward a more market-managed system (Weaver Bill, 96th Congress, H.R. 4237; Roth-Stevenson Bill, 96th Congress, S. 2773). The economic implications of these proposed actions are unclear. Several studies have commenced examination of this very complex issue (Peltier and Anderson, McCalla and Schmitz, Martin, Thompson and Dahl). The purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of the subject by describing another major grain export marketing system and to investigate a number of methodological issues with respect to measuring the performance of the Australian export marketing system. This paper is the framework for a proposed study to be completed at Texas A&M University; therefore, it does not present research results or policy conclusions. A brief description of the wheat marketing system is followed by an outline for examining Australian grain export marketing performance.