When it comes to cork the first thing that comes to mind is Portuguese wines and bottles buffered with cork stoppers. It’s natural. Great products come to mind very easily and get greater when together. What you probably don’t know is that cork not only plays a role in your moments of pleasure, but as well in your comfort. It may surprise you that Airbus is replacing most plastic and rubber parts in aircrafts fuselage by Portuguese cork to increase safety conditions of the equipment and comfort of passengers and crew. The usage of cork in aircraft building is just one of the innovative applications of this environment friendly industry where “nothing is wasted, everything is transformed”.
Due to its characteristics, cork is much more then “just” a stopper. Cork is resistant, light, flexible, compressible and is an outstanding thermal and acoustic insulator. With this profile cork has a wide range of uses and may come into your life very easily. It is transformed into floor panels, decorative home or office applications, shoe soles, works of art, fashion articles, complements or acessories. Surprise yourself: cork can turn into a beautiful wedding dress, like the one in the image, or into applications for highly demanding industries like automotive, space, aeronautical or military industries. When the European Space Agency launches the first European mission to Mars, in 2018, the Portuguese cork will be present in the spacecraft to be used.
Cork has also chemical or pharmaceutical uses. Even the cork dust is used to produce energy. Not surprisingly leading brands like Moet & Chandon, Rolls Royce, Boeing, Airbus, NASA and Ford prefer Portuguese cork.
Cork is an important economic asset for our country. The Economist magazine has once compared cork to African diamonds and Middle East oil with the added-value that cork is truly clean and renewable. No doubt it is precious.
Portugal is the world leader in cork production, with an average annual output of 157000 tons, and holds 60% of worldwide exports representing an annual turnover of about 850 million euro. Cork stoppers represent, of course, the bigger share of this total with about 590 million euro followed by building materials with about 177 million euro. France, Spain and the US are the main foreign markets for Portuguese cork.
Cork industry is highly developed in Portugal. There are approximatly 800 companies operating in the industry, mainly in the north of the country, mobilizing a work force of 12 thousand people. These companies operate in cork activities such as preparation, manufacture, agglomeration and granulation.