The main objective of this paper is to characterize and evaluate in microeconomic terms the activity of apple production in the north of the interior of Portugal. After describing the typical market flow of the filiere inherent in the production and marketing of apples, we restrict the analysis to the farm systems and marketing chain, with special emphasis on the technical and economic conditions. For this purpose we present indicators related to the framework of the applied production technologies (previous crop and soil tillage, training system, pruning methods, rootstocks and varieties, water availability and soil management) and the production activity (market aspects, typology of apple farms and marketing chain). We will also present the economic and financial evaluation (using the method of enterprise budgets), and the description of storage, normalisation and packing plants including their investment and storage/packing costs. We conclude that the apple orchard assures levels of reasonably profitable activity in the region. However, in each specific case, it must be seen as a complex system where various other factors intervene, such as the professional training of the farmer, the availability of production factors, the technical conditions of the farm, the market and the system of marketing, the finance of the investment and the farming deficit subsequent to the first year of activity, and the harvest insurance.
