The 25th anniversary commemoration event was attended by the Minister of Agriculture and President of the ICSuro.

On Monday, June 27, the Institut Català del Suro held the central act of commemorating its 25th anniversary with the visit of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Meritxell Serret, who is also president of this consortium, at the ICSuro headquarters in Palafrugell.

The visit began with an institutional meeting with the members of the ICSuro Board of Directors, in which its director, Albert Hereu, made a presentation about the organization, its strategic lines and future challenges . Afterwards, the facilities and the Cork Center laboratory, an international reference center for quality control for the cork, wine and food industry, were visited, in order to show the latest generation analytical technologies and the projects in progress. Likewise, there has been an impact on additive 3D printing, equipment that the Cork Center has recently acquired in order to valorize the cork by-product, and at the same time the Mass/Mass Chromatograph that allows a much more precise detection in terms of controls quality for the cork and wine industry, responding to the growing demands of national and international markets.

During the visit, the Minister was also accompanied by: the director general of Forests, Montse Barniol; the director of the SSTT of the DARP in Girona, Elisenda Guillaumes, as well as members of the Board of Directors of the ICSuro and representatives of institutions and entities linked to the cork and wine sector.

The event ended with some institutional parliaments in the ICSuro's outdoor patio. The welcome was given by Guillem Genover, councilor of the Palafrugell Town Council, who explained the commitment of the municipality of Palafrugell to cork and cork institutions such as the ICSuro; Margarida Matas, vice-president of the Associació d'Empresaris Surers de Catalunya (AECORK), who has made an impact on industrialists' commitment to the creation of this body and the great usefulness of ICSuro as a reference center in cork research, innovation, standardization and training; Rosendo Castelló, president of the Consorci Forestal de Catalunya, who has given a further vision in the forestry field, thanking the ICSuro for the work for the revaluation of Catalan cork and the importance of collaborating together with industry and forestry to obtain a product with the maximum guarantees. Likewise, Albert Hereu, director of the Institut Català del Suro, explained some of the milestones of these 25 years and launched some future challenges for both the institution and the sector, giving a vision of the past, present and future of 'this institution. At the end of the event, the DARP Councilor and president of the ICSuro, Meritxell Serret, conveyed the decisive commitment of the Department of Agriculture and the Generalitat to continue supporting this body as the backbone of the entire value chain of the Catalan rubber sector.

To conclude, a toast was held to celebrate the 25th anniversary among all the attendees.