The Institut Català del Suro was created in 1991 as a result of a request from the cork business fabric to the Generalitat de Catalunya to have a research institution that would facilitate business and cork product development and at the same time allow the sector have international visibility. It is therefore a center that was born from consensus and that has the maximum representativeness, since the current board of trustees of the foundation (legal form acquired in 2019) is made up of the Associació d'Empresaris Surers de Catalunya (AECORK ) which brings together the business side and which holds the presidency, the Consorci Forestal de Catalunya which represents the forestry part and which exercises the vice-presidency, the councils of Palafrugell and Cassà de la Selva which represent the institutional part, and a person privately, Mr. Guillem Genover, who is a great connoisseur of the cork sector.

Cork represents many of the values that today society demands for the generation of a possible and sustainable future. The massifs of the territories full of Quercus Suber represent the sustainable passage of time; the cork processing companies, many more than a century old, represent the constant work with social and economic meaning that makes things evolve; the fate of cork in the world of wines reminds us that natural foods are a legitimate purpose of what is a natural product as is cork. The chain of meaning, the chain of value. this is us

More than 30 years after its creation, we can say that the institution that brings us together makes more sense than ever, since with its work of research, normalization and standardization and the provision of services to the cork and wine industry in Cork Center Laboratory has managed to establish itself as a great ally for corks and wineries to get their best product.

The Institut Català del Suro has been able to assert itself as a research center with an international vocation and proven prestige, participating in research and development projects to study new applications of cork or to face current global challenges such as sustainability or the climate crisis Questions that will undoubtedly be strategic in the coming years, and for which the parts of our value chain will fight.

Joan J. Puig,

President of the Institut Català del Suro Foundation