Created at the end of 2002, it emerged in response to the following objectives:

• specialisation by a team dedicated exclusively to the raw material;
• utilisation of synergies and integration of the processing of all the kinds of raw material (cork) transformed in the remaining Units;
• promoting management of the raw materials from an international perspective;
• strengthening Corticeira Amorim’s presence in the producer countries;
• making possible the existence of an historical register, updated by cork-producing forest units;
• fostering dialogue with the producers, promoting certification of forests, enhancing the technical quality of the product and developing Research and Development partnerships in areas applied to the forest;
• promoting forest certification, including FSC certification. The Raw Material Business Unit was one of the first BU’s to receive the prestigious FSC certification;
• preparing, discussing and deciding the supply policy over several years.

The geographical sphere of action of this Business Unit is concentrated, in addition to Southern Portugal, in Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Sardinia, and could be extended to other cork-producing countries where CORTICEIRA AMORIM undertakes industrial or merely commercial activity.

Concentration in this new Unit of all purchasing and preparation of the raw material has already made it possible to add obvious gains, essentially in respect of:

• utilisation of synergies between the different Business Units;
• global and integrated management of all the kinds of cork raw material;
• more adequate distribution of resources and allocation of responsibilities;
• greater clarity in monitoring the profitability of each activity.

In addition to the factors mentioned above, the Raw Materials Business Unit has made it possible to create a perimeter of quality, accompanying systematically and with rigour the evolution of the cork markets which are essential to the activity of all CORTICEIRA AMORIM’s companies.