What’s Next for Portugal’s Ancient Export: Cork?

Leyla Kazim reports from cork country in Portugal - where up to 10,000 of hectares of cork oak trees are being lost every year, despite laws protecting them from being cut down. Climate change is putting new stresses on the ancient forests, and as the cork industry worries that falling wine consumption could shrink global demand, Leyla asks why Portugal became the world’s biggest producer of cork in the first place, and what it will take to keep them thriving. She meets farmers using regenerative methods of working the land to protect the montado, and plantations where thousands of new trees are being planted. Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

You can listen to What’s Next for Portugal’s Ancient Export: Cork? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What’s Next for Portugal’s Ancient Export: Cork? is an episode from The Food Programme by BBC.

This episode is 42:46 long.

This episode was published on Mar 13, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Food Programme when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.