Spain is the main producer of Tuber melanosporum followed by France and Italy, countries that, however, are also the largest buyers of Teruel truffles. This is because they are the ones with the most culture of truffle consumption and with their own productions they do not have enough to supply the markets.
Most of the national mushroom comes from the bowels of Gúdar-Javalambre and is consumed abroad. When analyzing the data of the last years –offered publicly by the website of the Secretary of State for Commerce of foreign trade statistics of goods in Spain, with figures generated by the Department of Customs and Excise Taxes of the Tax Agency– It is observed that the largest volume of transactions is carried out with France and Italy, which account for 87.6% of the sales of Tuber melanosporum made by companies from Teruel.
Throughout this year the largest flow of truffle marketing has been to Italy, with a total of 4.9 million euros invoiced. 4.2 million worth of mushrooms were sold to France, although in recent years the sales figures to the French country were much higher than those of Italy, perhaps because the greatest demand takes place during the Christmas period, which is not computed in the figures for 2022 since they only go up to the month of August.
87.6% of truffle exports made from the province of Teruel went to France and Italy. However, although our main customers are from these countries, the truffles collected by truffle growers from Teruel also travel to places like Denmark. The Danes have placed themselves in third place in terms of sales level, surpassing the United Kingdom and Germany, which in previous years occupied third and fourth place and this 2022 they fell one position.
The covid and the USA
In sixth place is Belgium followed by the United States, whose purchase volume has dropped substantially since the pandemic. Thus, while in 2019 Americans purchased 735,000 euros worth of truffles, as of 2020 the decline has been gradual, with 150,770 euros in 2020, 104,000 in 2021 and slightly more than 56,000 this year (although here the campaign has yet to be included). 2022-2023).
Specimens of Tuber Melanosporum from Teruel have in turn sneaked into restaurants and shops in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea or Japan in recent years, a country that has not bought Teruel truffles since before the pandemic.
Some European territories such as Norway, Sweden, Malta or Portugal are also clients, as well as several from Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia or Croatia.
The president of the Federation of French Truffle Growers, Alain Ambialet, explained during his participation in the assembly of the European Group of Truffles and Truffle Farming (GETT), which took place last October in Mora and Sarrión, that 150 truffles are consumed in his country. tons of truffles, but only around 50 are produced there and the rest are imported from other countries, mainly Spain.
He recognized that most of the truffle is obtained from crops since the wild one is almost non-existent. However, the sector is not as professional as in Teruel since of the 5,000 associated truffle growers only a few live off truffles, while the rest have it as a complement. He acknowledged that the Teruel truffle is marketed as Perigord because, he added, there are no organoleptic differences between the two.
For his part, Gianfranco Berni, president of the Italian Federation of truffle producers, specified that in Italy, despite the fact that they have been consuming truffles for many centuries, cultivation is not very advanced and 80% of the product comes from small plantations, less than one hectare. .
France and Italy are the countries that most demand Teruel truffles