The Portuguese Cork industry

Portugal is the largest international producer and exporter of cork, currently exporting more then 800 million euros per year in products (chart 1). For this reason, the cork industry is a key element of the Portuguese manufacturing sector. Suffice it to say that 90% of the cork produced in Portugal is for the foreign market and only 10% for the domestic market, taking into account that 40% of Portuguese businesses are exporters. In global terms 60% of the world cork trade derives from Portuguese cork, this figure rising to around 80% for the trade in manufactured products.

Source: INE - Instituto Nacional da Estatistica (National Statistics Institute)

The value generated by Portuguese cork exports is considerable, standing at approximately 0.7% of the GDP (market prices), 2.3% of the Portuguese exports’ total value and about 30% of the Portuguese forestry product exports.

Concerning the representability per country of the combined cork exports, it is noteworthy that cork represents more than 40% of the value exported to Argentina and Chile. For Australia this value surpasses 30 percent (Chart 2).

Source: INE

Export destinations

Portuguese cork products are exported to countries all over the world.

Europe is the main destination for Portuguese cork exports absorbing 59, 4 per cent of the total (in value). The main destinations are France (18,8%), USA (16%), Spain (11,6%), Germany (7,5%) and Italy (7,3%) (Chart 3).

Source: INE

Country	Value Million Euros(Year 2008)	Percentage
France	€155,2	18,8%
USA	€131,7	16%
Spain	€95,6	11,6%
Germany	€61,8	7,5%
Italy	€60,4	7,3%
Chile	€26,3	3,2%
Russia	€25,7	3,1%
Australia	€16,1	2%
UK	€16,8	2%
China	€17,3	2%
South Africa	€12,1	1,5%
Japan	€6,6	1%
Other Countries	€198	24%
Total	€823,6	100%

Source: INE

Cork stoppers continue to lead Portuguese cork exports, reaching a value of 552 millions euros, followed by cork building materials at 165 millions euros (Chart 4).

Source: INE

Within the cork stopper segment, natural cork stoppers rise in first place, with 374 million euros, followed by champagne stoppers, with 88 million euros (Chart 5).

Source: INE

Portugal is still the world’s greatest importer of cork, which is processed and subsequently exported as final consumer products.

In 2008, imports reached 129 million euros and 59 thousand tonnes (Chart 6).

Source: INE

The imports for the cork industry in 2008 originated essentially from Spain (72 per cent - value in euros) (Chart 7).

Source: INE

In the same year, natural cork imports reached approximately 74 million euros, representing about 57% of the total Portuguese cork imports (Chart 8).

Source: INE

Source:
APCOR - Associação Portuguesa de Cortiça
www.apcor.pt