Portugal, the world’s main cork producer, is discovering new makes use of for the fabric, from footwear to furnishings, as demand for wine bottle stoppers wanes.
Producers spotlight the environmentally pleasant properties of cork, which is light-weight, recyclable, waterproof and fire-resistant, to encourage its use in various settings.
Cork is obtained by stripping the bark of cork oak bushes each 9 years in a cautious course of that permits the tree to regenerate and develop, making the trade naturally sustainable.
The fabric has “a negative carbon footprint because it comes from a tree that captures CO2 day and night”, Antonio Rios de Amorim, the CEO of the world’s largest cork producer Corticeira Amorim, informed AFP.
The push to diversify comes as international gross sales of wine decline, decreasing demand for cork wine stoppers which have lengthy confronted competitors from cheaper plastic stoppers and screw tops.
“Periods of slowdown must be used to question what we do,” stated Amorim, whose ancestors based Corticeira Amorim 154 years in the past within the northern village of Mozelos, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of second metropolis Porto.
Booster rockets, metro seats
Due to cork’s cell-like construction, the fabric is elastic and extremely impermeable, making it appropriate to make sneakers in addition to ties, pants and different garments.
Furnishings designers are additionally more and more drawn to the fabric.
British designer Tom Dixon has referred to as it a “dream material” and put out a variety of darkish cork furnishings that features tables, stools and cabinets utilizing cork from Portugal.
The Lisbon metro in 2020 changed the material lining on all seats of its practice fleet with cork, a neater to take care of materials.
Builders have been drawn to the fabric due to its distinctive thermal insulation and sound absorption properties.
Cork can be discovering its approach into area. It’s utilized in thermal safety coating on booster rockets due to its resistance “to strong variations in temperature”, stated Amorim.
Making wine bottle stoppers, nevertheless, stays the primary exercise for Portugal’s cork trade, which employs round 8,000 individuals.
Corticeira Amorim makes some six billion cork wine bottle stoppers per yr, virtually all of them for export primarily to Chile, France and the USA.
It accounts for 70 p.c of the worldwide market share for cork stoppers and posted gross sales of 985 million euros (one billion {dollars}) in 2023, barely decrease than within the earlier yr.
Conventional strategies
Cork is comprised of the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber) present in nations of the Mediterranean basin.
Portugal is house to a couple of third of the world’s whole space devoted to this tree — greater than some other nation — and accounts for practically half the world’s provide of cork.
There are additionally plantations in France, Spain, Italy. Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Within the province of Ribatejo round 80 kilometres east of Lisbon, cork oaks stretch so far as the attention can see.
The bark is faraway from the tree in summer season utilizing conventional strategies handed down from era to era.
It’s a extremely exact method “that takes several years to learn”, stated Nelson Ferreira, a 43-year-old cork bark harvester, including he takes nice care to not injury the tree.
The bark is then taken to Corticeira Amorim’s factories within the north of Portugal the place it’s steam-treated, minimize into smaller items after which fed into machines that punch out stoppers.
The preservation of cork oaks is essential for Portugal, which has made them a protected species because it takes a median of 40 years for a tree to start out producing cork that can be utilized by cork makers.
