In recent years, as the integration of markets around the top central wholesale markets of big cities advanced, the structure of collective shipment of agricultural products by chief producing areas to the leading urban central markets has been established. As a result, the interregional competitions for the advantageous position with the giant markets have come to be more and more heightened, though they have pushed forward what is called the modernization of the agricultural industry on the part of the producing areas, in the ways of the management of co-operative shipment and the high standardization of goods in quality and assortment.<br>Especially nowadays, when such authoritative organs as the Agricultural Co-operative Associations have intensified their integrative influences over the producing areas, the latter's responses to them are not uniform. In the suburban districts of large towns, therefore, it is growing more and more difficult to effect the organization of the producing areas on an extensive scale in compliance to the marketing structure. Moreover, since owing to the development of the market gardening and the transportation facilities, the absolute advantage in distance of the suburban areas located near the city markets is giving way, the suburban producing areas are now placed in the relatively disadvantageous position in the interregional competitions.<br>In considerations of these circumstances, the present writer has made inquiries into how the strawberry producing areas in Nara Prefecture are coping with these intarregional competitions and how they are acting up to the changed conditions of the marketing systems. And the verified facts are the following.<br>Once Nara Prefecture monopolized the marketing share of the Osaka Central Wholesale Market in the strawberry supply. Recently, however, its share has seen a sudden fall. Nevertheless, there being no considerable fall in the gross amount of prduction, the natural forecast has been that the producing areas must have found remedies in their changed ways of coping with the modern systems of marketing. And several researches also have confirmed that the areas find the remedies in the multiplicity of the consignment organizations and the marketing distribution systems. The fact is that nowadays Agricultural Co-operative Association, Nara Strawberry shipment Associaions, the respective village shipment associations, and the respective speculative farmers have their individual ways of answering the present marketing systems developed among them. The main causes analyzed for this are: 1. the interregional competitions, 2. the price margins among the markets, 3. the farmers' and the established shipment associations' reactions to the integration through the intercession of Agricultural Co-operative Association, 4. the tie-up of the established associations with the new marketing systems, 5. discrepancies of the agricultural techniques among respective villages and respective farmers.<br>On the other hand, from the comparison of the producer prices there has resulted a most remarkable fact that the producer price of Agricultural Co-operative Associations is lower than that of the village shipment associations, though the former has many advantages over the latter in point of mass sale. From this it may be suggested that there is as yet much room of re-examination as to the scale and the way of the integration of the shipment associations.