Food distribution system in developing countries, for instance in Vietnam, has rapidly transformed towards modern supply channels with high quality products. We observe that producers of the agricultural products at mountainous areas face significant challenges in accessing to modern distribution channels. In such condition, linkages appear as a key factor for small scale farmers connecting to markets. In this regard, the purpose of our research is to study the factors affecting linkages in the

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... formation of modern distribution channels in view of consumption of mountainous agricultural products in Vietnam and developing countries in general. In our research model, we tested 6 elaborated hypotheses focused on the issue of linkage in modern distribution channel formation and introduced 26 observed variables. We conducted the survey at 8 out of 11 districts of the mountainous areas of Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam in 2018 with 215 small farmers being the respondents. The results indicates that linkages in modern distribution channels formation for mountainous agricultural consumption has strongly affected by a range of significant groups of factors, namely: natural conditions of the mountainous area; characteristics of agricultural products in the mountainous area; support of firms; government policies aimed at the formation of linkages; constraints in agricultural production; barriers to enter modern distribution channels.