Een nieuw technisch proces, Naturity genaamd, heeft een doorbraak veroorzaakt in het bestrijden van kurkschimmel (TCA), beweert Amorim. Er is geen ‘detectable’ aantasting van de kurk meer in beeld. Dat geldt, aldus de directie, voor alle kurken die het bedrijf levert. Dat is 30% van al het sluitmateriaal op de wereldmarkt. Thedrinksbusiness meldt:

 

 

 

‘World’s biggest cork producer, Amorim, has delivered on a promise made 18 months ago to eliminate detectable TCA for every cork it makes – which amounts to more than 5.5 billion stoppers annually. News of the breakthrough came from a discussion with company chairman António Rios de Amorim last month, who confirmed that Amorim has developed cost-efficient technology to remove detectable TCA from all its product lines at no extra fee for the customer. It’s a big moment for cork, considering Amorim accounts for almost half of the market for the natural stoppers, and 30% of the total production of all closures.

 

Although António does not want to divulge the details of this development – understandably considering the competition in the closures sector – he told db that Amorim has used “batch-based technology” to remove TCA from everything it makes, and that the new process is ready for the end of this year. Unlike the company’s NDtech screening process, which is a quality control approach offering buyers of whole-piece natural corks a ‘non-detectable TCA guarantee’, the latest breakthrough involves new TCA-removal technology that can be applied across the board, especially for single-piece cork stoppers.