Portuguese cork growers fight back

by Rob Pittam, BBC Two's Working Lunch

The cork growers of the Alentejo region in Portugal are famous for their relaxed approach to the blistering heat of the afternoon sun, but even they are refusing to take what they see as an attack on their industry lying down.

The Portuguese make jokes about the Alentejo workers' ability to find a piece of shade and take it easy - having spent a hot summer's day with them in the heart of Portgual, I could understand why they're so keen to find shelter.

Generations of them have worked the huge cork forests of the region, but they say the tradition is under threat from the growing use of plastic stoppers and cork screw caps on the billions of bottles of wine drunk around the world.

And Portugal's cork makers have singled out Britain's supermarkets as leading the attack.

Taint

The supermarkets say they are worried about a chemical called TCA which can appear in corks and taint the wine, making it taste 'off'.

They believe plastic corks and screwcap tops are a way of avoiding the problem.

The corkmakers say it occurs in less than one per cent of bottles with corks and they are working on research to eliminate it all together.

Disbelief

Back in the Alentejo there's disbelief that anyone could have a bad word to say about cork. It's the heart of Portugal's production.

Over 15,000 people work in cork production in Portugal

Mile upon mile of cork oaks stud the dusty undulating countryside, their freshly stripped trunks a light brown beneath the grey bark at the top of the trees.

The industry began in 1690 when Dom Perignon first used cork as a stopper for his wine and champagne. Until then bottles had been topped with cloth, wax or wood chips.

Cork oak

The cork oak is ideal for the job. It's impermeable, pliable and strong.

What's more the trees are unharmed by the process.

A cork oak is first stripped at 25 years old, although the first harvest is not good enough to use. The trees can then be stripped every nine years.

The bark has evolved to recover from forest fires and so grows back. The trees themselves can live for up to three hundred years.

They grow right across the Western Mediterranean basin, in Spain and France as well as Morocco and Tunisia.

Fightback

Portugal is at the centre of the industry, supplying 54 per cent of the world's cork. It accounts for one and a half per cent of the Portuguese economy and provides 15,000 jobs.

Cork production accounts for 1.5% of Portugal's GDP

And it's the Portuguese industry that's leading the fightback against plastic.

Later this year 80 journalists from around the world will be brought over as part of a charm offensive.

They'll see the same scenes of a pastoral idyll that we were treated to - suntanned labourers balanced on branches chopping away at the trees.

They use just enough force to split the bark which is dropped to waiting teams who load it onto the trailors that criss cross beneath the trees.

Sustainability

The forests are home to eagles and the increasingly threatened lynx wildcat.

The cork producers say it's a uniquely sustainable industry that does no damage to its raw materials - the trees.

But they warn if the use of corks in wine bottles drops, the farmers will quickly remove the trees to make way for more profitable crops.

The supermarkets have suggested that some trees are being stripped too often and that farmers are driving out wildpigs which live in the forests.

The claims are angrily denied by the cork growers who have vowed to fight back.

In some countries they are lobbying wine producers to persuade them to remain with cork, but with Britain's wine making sector so small, producers are planning on pleading directly with the consumer.

They hope they can save a way of life which they say is important for the Portuguese economy and vital for its wildlife.