Truffle – The true price of black gold – Investigation

INVESTIGATION

Published on December 18, 2024

In this month of July 2024, one of the rainiest in recent years in France, the grass is very green everywhere on the plot, except at the foot of the oaks. Xavier Montet, president of the Saint-Pantaly-d’Excideuil Truffle Growers Group, in Dordogne, shows us these bare circles on the ground. It is when this “burn” forms that he knows that the trees are starting to produce. In his plot, he slips, neither herbicide nor fertilizer, because “the truffle is a mushroom too delicate to withstand disturbance”. While many producers only cultivate a few hundred acres, he maintains nearly ten hectares of truffle groves in the department, alongside his employment in a community. That being said, even with this relatively large surface area, truffles remain a supplement to his income, with yields varying from 1 to 80 kg/ha depending on the year.

Profitable but expensive activity

Generally speaking, apart from a few farmers with even larger areas, few people earn a salary from this production. “Those who only live on truffles are the canners… or the barkers”squeaks Xavier Montet. If sales may seem important, investments must also be taken into account, he insists. In fact, between