Portugal Doubles Down on Cork After Demand Revives in Wine Business
- Oaks are more fire resistant than eucalyptus and pine trees
- Top Portuguese cork exporter’s CEO sees record sales in 2018
Cork oak and cork bark in Alentejo, Portugal.
Photographer: Dea/S Vannini/De Agostini/Getty Images
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Four months after deadly fires ripped through Portuguese forests and villages, Prime Minister Antonio Costa picked up a spade and planted a cork oak tree.
The move was aimed at offering hope to communities that lost everything to some of the worst blazes in Portugal and to prevent future conflagrations -- oaks are more resistant to fires than eucalyptus and pine forests. For Corticeira Amorim SGPS SA, the world’s biggest exporter of cork products, the call for more oak couldn’t have come at a better time.