RER, Rio de Janeiro, vol. 42, nº 04, p. 709-731, out/dez 2004 – Impressa em dezembro 2004 The application of a prospective study to productive chains incorporates several stages like the segmentation of each link, the analysis of institutional and organizational environments to include the chain, the identification of necessities and aspirations of each chain segment and the critical factors for the improvement of performance. Thus, regarding the economic importance of production, industrialization and trading of lemon grass, Cymbopogon citratus (D.C.) Stapf and aiming at an integrated action of the agricultural sector involved, this paper proposes the prospective study of production chain of this species in Paraná State, identifying factors and conditioning of quality in each link of production chain. Thus the paper presents a view of: the lemon grass agricultural production in Paraná and its agricultural production community in Paraná; identifying and characterizing other segments of production chain of this species in Paraná and finally identifying and analyzing main bottlenecks, absent links and narrows points in the chain segments in the State. The following were identified as major components of the production chain: production unit, the agro-industry, the industry (nutrition, pharmaceutical and chemical) and the inside consumer market (wholesale and retail); thus, cooperating with implementation of political-organizational attitudes among economic agents of public and private sectors involved in the lemon grass production chain, enabling them to develop strategies that increase the competitiveness and expand the market.