Explanation of the cork industry

Cork industry cradle

The merit of being the first place in the State where cork stoppers were made is something that has traditionally been contested by a series of towns such as Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Llagostera, Tossa, or Agullana, and each of these hypotheses is accompanied by a story that aims to explain how this event took place.

The version that attributes this honor to Agullana was made known by J. Maspons i Camarasa

who explains that two large landowners in the municipality of Agullana, Mr. Puig and Mr. Guinart, were jointly subscribed to a French newspaper, and by reading it, they learned that the exploitation of cork oaks to make stoppers yielded very good returns in France. This fact led Guinart to go to France with a young man, where he learned to make stoppers and returned accompanied by two or three French workers, who became teachers to the farmers of Agullana. Production of stoppers began at Can Guinart, and the extraordinary returns obtained quickly spread this new cork business.

The good yield that cork provided at that time caused the second half of the 18th century and a good part of the 19th century to see an increase in the area of cork oak forests as landowners planted them in rows as if they were fruit trees, a fact still noticeable today in some estates.



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