From São Brás de Alportel to the world, Casa Barreira is one of the most important players in the field of cork production, and a leading reference in the sector. After working in the real-estate sector, José Maria Guedes began to manage the family business more than a decade ago. He views this legacy with great pride, and with a tremendous sense of commitment. For the forestry manager and producer, Casa Barreira’s leading role conveys a “respect, responsibility and pride for our forebears” which he is responsible for safeguarding. “They built a heritage that we have to take care of, respect and increase if possible”, he concludes.
Returning to the family business and helping to build its future is a challenge that José Maria Guedes embraces with conviction and natural ease. After all, he has deep roots which link him to cork and the cork oak tree: “My first memories of the tree date from my childhood, when I went to the countryside in the Alentejo with my dad and grandad during the holidays to watch cork being harvested and stacked. They are also from the time when we would lay down bait for pigeons, and looked for the best cork oak tree to catch pigeons, since it had to be a large cork oak tree with lots of branches and acorns.”
Like the cork oak tree, the history of Casa Barreira is, in many ways, about resilience and adaptation. The creation of an industrial cork transformation unit in São Brás de Alportel, at the beginning of the 20th century, was followed by the adventure of the Barreira brothers, José and João, who emigrated to the United States of America where they settled for around ten years, developing numerous contacts in the cork export market.
They returned to Portugal with a strong entrepreneurial vision and gave new impetus to the business, which expanded over the following decades, until the small family group became one of the leading economic agents in the cork sector and one of the world’s biggest forestry producers of cork. It still maintains this position, based on its estates that, as a whole, encompass 22,000 hectares, 15,000 of which are occupied by forest.
The main challenges along the way,
José Maria Guedes says that major challenges were overcome by placing “the Casa Barreira’s interests ahead of personal interests”. The nationalisation of estates that occurred after the 1974 revolution implied a significant loss of property, although this was subsequently recovered. But today there are different challenges, in particular “ageing of the cork oak forest”, which has been aggravated by “depletion of the soil” that makes it difficult to renew the forest. This concern is shared by many forestry producers, and José Maria Guedes views this with great apprehension. “When we recovered our properties, the cork oak forest began to be less and less productive”, explains José Maria Guedes. “That is why we have to invest in other complementary areas, such as irrigated land occupied by olive groves and livestock.”
Diversification of activities is a potential option to achieve greater profitability, but it is not the only one. José Maria Guedes believes that there must be a increasing focus on the cork oak tree, which underpins an industry in which Portugal is a leader - a treasure that cannot be overlooked. He considers that possible paths include strengthening research to obtain genetically-improved species that require less water, and can even respond to climate change. “We have to develop a tree that can grow, develop and produce cork, but with half the water. This is the main factor that will ensure that areas of cork oak forest are successful.” José Maria Guedes stresses that a concerted effort is needed to make this happen. Basically, it requires bringing together the State and the private sector, the academic world, research, and investment, united around a common objective.
Looking at the panorama of forestry production in Portugal, José Maria Guedes highlights the need to create a “national plan for the forest”, which implies “a paradigm shift” and cannot depend, in his opinion, on isolated measures, and should be developed from a “multidisciplinary” perspective, as well as a strategic one, “with a timeframe of 30 to 40 years”. “Nothing will be achieved until there is a well-designed plan at the national level that defends the cork oak forest. Portugal is the world’s leading producer of cork. And this should be defended by our policymakers. It merits increased attention.”
Hope for the future
Despite the countless challenges, his passion for cork and the cork oak forest is not easily extinguished. José Maria Guedes has high hopes for the future, which involves research, public investment and the emergence of new areas of cork oak forest in Portugal: “There are also cycles in the forest. I believe that new areas of cork oak forests will also appear, such as in the Alto Alentejo and Beira Baixa, where there are higher rainfall levels, and you can see a lot of growth, but it’s essential to avoid the risk of wildfires. I can only imagine a different forest when the scientific community takes this subject seriously, and with a well-designed national forestry plan, rather than haphazard measures taken without any criteria.”
