SANTANA DO MATO, Portugal: Just as he has done every summer for the past 50 years, Antonio Jose Boneco is busy stripping bark from cork trees in southern Portugal.

But whether his grandchildren will still be stripping the same trees in another 50 years will very much depend on whether new technology and branding embraced by the cork industry can face off a challenge from synthetic bungs.

"It's a question of quality demarcation, just as you prefer to wear a cotton shirt," said Roderick Reynolds, who farms 400 hectares of cork groves near the village of Santana do Mato, 70 kilometres east of Lisbon.

"We face the same battle as cotton, silk, linen and wool," he added while giving directions to Boneco and other workers.

Portugal is the world's biggest producer of natural cork, a time-consuming business which could be squeezed out by plastic stoppers that are far easier to make and claim to preserve the taste of wine better.

Cork makers estimate synthetic rivals have already eaten away 8 per cent of a market which earns Portugal US$1 billion a year in exports.

Environmental and wildlife groups have warned that a big drop in natural cork sales could make farmers abandon ancient cork groves, which help prevent desertification in much of Portugal and neighbouring Spain.

Home to species

Known as "montados" in Portugal and "dehesas" in Spain, cork groves are also home to endangered species like the Iberian lynx and the Spanish imperial eagle and rare birds like the booted eagle, black vulture and turtle dove.

"If current trends continue, the wildlife-rich montados and dehesas could disappear within 20 to 30 years," a report by Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said.

Portuguese manufacturers have responded by promoting cork's unique properties and spending an estimated US$452 million on improving quality in the past five years. They plan to invest another US$565 million in the next three years.

"Whoever cares for their grandchildren plants cork," goes the old saying in Portugal's sun-scorched Alentejo region. Cork oaks are well suited to the arid, sandy landscape in Alentejo, whose poor inhabitants are stereotyped as backwoods farmers.

The cork oak can renew its bark, but it takes at least 40 years to produce useful cork. The tree can then only be stripped every nine years out of a working life of 150 to 200 years.

Workers like Boneco step in for two months a year, wielding their axes with precision to cut the bark. They then loosen it with blows using the back of the axe, before carefully prising off semicircular strips with the axe handles.

About the only thing that has changed about the job in centuries is the care taken to cut off the lower part of the bark, which may be contaminated with fungi that can taint the wine.

State-of-the-art

But in nearby Ponte de Sor, the process of stamping out corks from bark in the Subercentro works has modernized almost beyond recognition, part of an effort to update the industry and win back a reputation for quality.

One aim of modernization is to combat a powerful chemical known as TCA, recently identified as being responsible for the taste of wine being spoiled or "corked."

Subercentro has more computers than workers. Each cork is gauged by a dozen lasers and checked for flaws by electronic cameras before being hermetically packed in sulphur dioxide to prevent mustiness.

"I know this doesn't even look like a cork factory," plant manager Paulo Ribeiro said. "But we are very aware that we deal in a natural product, which has its defects, and comes into contact with food and drink."

The Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) takes a conciliatory attitude towards its rivals.

"The market is structured in such a way that there is room for all types of closures," said APCOR spokeswoman Claudia Pimenta. "If TCA was once a problem, it has been overcome and cork's properties have yet to be reproduced.

"But the environmental lobby aren't exaggerating. The threat does exist and cork groves are fragile ecosystems and thus very sensitive to shifts in the market."

Synthetic stoppers may so far be confined to the cheaper end of the market, but this is a key segment for supermarket chains in major wine importers like Britain.

"The use of synthetic stoppers within our retail operation has bought about a massive reduction in customer complaints," said Howard Winn of the beer, wines and spirits technical team at J. Sainsbury, Britain's second-largest supermarket chain.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 07/14/2003 page1)