The use of cork as raw material by the human being goes back several centuries before Christ. There are references dating from 3000 to. C. in which the cork was used as fishing accessories by the Egyptians and Persians. Also other people of antiquity, who when they realized the unique potentialities and characteristics of cork, used it in the most varied aspects of their daily life, from the shoes to the construction of their houses.

The use of cork as a container sealant was also a common practice in antiquity. An example of this is an amphora found in Ephesus dating from the first century BC. C. that was covered with a cork of cork and that still contained wine in its interior. Despite these references, the greatest development in the application of cork as a sealant occurred in the seventeenth century when the French Benedictine monk Pierre Pérignon decided to use cork stoppers, instead of the wooden stoppers used until then, to seal the bottles of his famous champagne Dom Pérignon. Since then, and with the evolution of the cork industry, the cork stopper has been chosen by the wine industry to protect its most varied wines.

Although the wine industry continues to be the main destination for cork products, there are other areas in which cork has been gaining more prominence, such as construction and more recently clothing and design.