Cotton, coffee, cocoa, tea and tobacco markets and the marketing of these crops by producers and exporters in low income countries is the focus of this paper. The paper considers the organization of value chains for bulk export commodities and whether one can produce a helpful typology of the structure and operations of such chains. The question of the role of commodity exports in economic development is discussed as is the issue of produce quality within liberalized export commodity systems: how has liberalization affected quality and how can quality be improved within liberalized systems? Conclusion and overall observations about the organization and performance of liberalized export commodity market systems are provided.