The company, Amorim Florestal, will streamline the process of raw cork acquisitions for the whole group, resulting in significant economies of scale.

"The establishment of Amorim Florestal is another of the organisational changes the group has implemented under the leadership of António Amorim," said the head of Amorim Florestal, Dr Jorge Peixoto.

"Having one entity responsible for purchasing is much more efficient and is an important element in Amorim's quest for total quality control.

"In the past, with each plant purchasing raw material separately, there was a tendency to look after specific needs and ignore the group as a whole."

One of the key benefits of purchasing through a single company is that it will help Amorim secure raw material at a better price.

Amorim currently buys about 15 per cent of the annual Portuguese cork harvest.

Importantly, the company only buys from growers complying with the industry's code of practice and has records going back 40 years to help it identify and select the best-quality raw material.

From bark to bottle: The harvest

In Portugal, the harvesting of cork bark is
strictly controlled.

Like all elements of cork forest management in Portugal, harvesting is strictly controlled.

A cork tree is not considered mature enough for harvest until its trunk is at least 70 centimetres in diameter. This is usually when the tree is about 25 years old.

By law, subsequent harvests can only be made at intervals of at least nine years.

This gives the bark time to regenerate to a thickness where it can be safely stripped from the tree and has the depth to allow production of whole corks.

The cycle continues on average for the next 150 years, during which time the tree will be stripped around 15 times.

However, bark from the first two harvests (producing virgin and secondary cork) is not regular or pliable enough for wine closures. It is used instead for a wide range of products.

Only after the third harvest, when the tree is about 43 years old, is the bark of sufficient quality for bottle stoppers.

Harvesting occurs during summer (June to August) because at this time of the year tree growth is at its peak. This means the bark can be removed quite easily and a new outer skin quickly grows to protect the delicate inner bark.

In an ancient craft passed down from generation to generation, skilled workers strip the outer bark using special axes with 18 centimetre blades.

Only 30 per cent of the tree's bark is stripped at each harvest.

On average, a cork oak will yield 45 kilograms of bark per harvest. Twenty per cent of this will be used to produce some 3000 wine corks while the rest is used in other applications.

At Amorim, the cork planks are stacked above ground at the company's state-of-the-art plants at Ponte de Sôr and Coruche. The planks are left to 'season' for six months in the open air before undergoing Amorim's revolutionary new processes that produce ultra-clean cork.

Between harvests, forest husbandry is undertaken to keep the trees in good health and ensure an on-going high quality cork yield.

On average, the annual harvest in Portugal now yields around 185,000 tonnes of high quality cork bark - about 50 per cent of the world's raw cork.