Portugal’s (and the world’s) largest producer of cork products, Amorim, is slowly changing the cork industry. Since 2013, a project has been in progress concerning the possibility to start harvesting the cork from the cork oaks earlier than at the age of 25, as is the case today.
The solution seems to be an improved irrigation system. Amorim believes that by using this irrigation technology it will be possible to harvest the cork tree – pulling off the bark – for a first harvest when the tree is only eight years old.
Today, you can start harvesting the bark when the tree is 25 years old and after that every nine years. But it’s only at the third harvest, at the age of 43, that the cork is good enough to be used for wine bottles. Speeding this up will make a significant difference.
Read more: amorim.com
