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1 Beginnings

In 1979 at a conference in Fort Collins, Colorado, Ian Hall was sitting with Jim Gerdemann and fellow students from Illinois University reminiscing about the time he had spent there as a postdoc. As happens, after years have gone by, there was a pause in the conversation, and Ian overheard a conversation in French at a neighbouring table. To describe Ian’s French as schoolboy French would be a gross exaggeration, but he understood sufficient—the first truffles had been produced in a French truffière (a truffle plantation). The information lodged somewhere in his subconscious only to be resurrected some months later with the idea, “If they can do it in France, then we can do it in New Zealand to meet the out-of-season market”. And so began the quest to cultivate mycorrhizal mushrooms in the Southern Hemisphere.

However, that was in 1979, and soon after, all mycorrhizal research in New Zealand was stopped, “mycorrhiza” became a dirty word, applications for funding that contained it were doomed to failure and Ian’s energies were diverted into “improving” New Zealand’s indigenous grasslands to carry more sheep. Fortunately, 6 years after the first “artificial” European truffles had been harvested in 1979, Jock Alison was appointed Director of the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries’ Invermay Agricultural Research Centre, of which Ian was part. Ian outlined the opportunities to Jock for growing truffles in New Zealand, carefully avoiding the use of the “m” word, and Jock gave the go ahead. This was also supported by a grant of $1,500 from the Miss E.L. Hellaby Trust.

By the early 1980s, a little information on the techniques that had been used in Europe to produce truffle-infected plants had been published. Armed with this, basic principles based on previous work with arbuscular mycorrhizas, and Fred Hoyle’s comment: “If you know something to be possible, it is much easier to find it yourself”, Ian Hall and Sharon Roberts, his part-time technician, set to work. Within 12 months, they had devised a method for producing Tuber melanosporum Vittad. mycorrhized plants by inoculating hazel and oak seedlings with mashed-up truffle. In doing so, the ground had been prepared for new industries in the Southern Hemisphere, based on the cultivation of edible mycorrhizal mushrooms.

2 The First Steps in New Zealand

The first three New Zealand truffières were established in 1987 in North Otago (45°S), which was within easy reach of the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries regional headquarters at Invermay near Dunedin. Two of the truffières were established on soils with a suitably high pH, whereas the soil on the third had to be modified by the application of large quantities of lime—about 4.5 kg/m2/0.1 pH mixed into the top 0.3 m of soil. The fungus thrived on the roots of the oaks and hazels, and the following year, it was decided to sell 3,000 experimental Périgord black truffle mycorrhized trees. These were offered to anyone, provided they agreed to follow a strict set of instructions regarding soil modification and planting. A small book, “The Black Truffle” was also prepared to provide growers with basic agronomic procedures and the soil and climatic requirements of T. melanosporum (Hall and Brown 1989). Field information was also made freely available to visitors from Australia and elsewhere. Also in true ANZAC esprit de corps, the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology sent Ian Hall’s proposal for further funding to Australia for assessment.

The first truffle was harvested in New Zealand on 29 July 1993 (Ian Hall’s birthday; Hall et al. 2007) on Alan Hall’s truffière at Waerenga-a-hika, near Gisborne (38° 40′ S), with the aid of Boss, a truffle dog trained at the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre. Following the find of the first truffles and after the initial fanfare of media attention, no further truffles were found on Alan Hall’s property for the next few years. The lack of a truffle dog did not help! Nor did the invasion of Tuber maculatum Vittad., probably originating from a willow that once grew adjacent to the truffière. This lack of a harvest did not escape the attention of those in charge of research funding in Crop and Food Research and the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology. Although they both were aware from the outset that harvests might take 10 years or more to begin, funding for truffle research began to be reduced in 1993 and ceased completely after 1995. Fortunately, research on other mycorrhizal mushrooms was supported, albeit at a much level lower than before. This together with income from the sale of truffle-infected trees and other commercial activities, there was almost sufficient funding to hold the edible mycorrhizal mushroom team together.

T. melanosporum truffles have now been harvested in New Zealand truffières in the Bay of Plenty (38° 00′ S), Poverty Bay, just south of Taumarunui, Hawkes Bay, Waipukurau, Paraparaumu, Nelson, Blenheim, North Canterbury and Ashburton (43° 53′ S). Bianchetto truffles (Tuber borchii Vittad.) have also been harvested at Te Puke (37° 45′ S), Waipukurau, greater Christchurch, Lake Hayes and near Queenstown (45° 02′ S), while Burgundy truffles have been harvested just south of Oamaru (45° 08′ S). These truffières were established both on soils with a suitably high pH (>7.2, ideally 7.9) as well as on naturally acidic soils (pH 5.3–6.9) that had been heavily limed. In 2011 the total harvest for NZ was estimated at less than 100 kg from a few ha of mature truffières. Yields range from the equivalent of >300 kg/ha in the north of the country to just a few kg/ha in the south.

3 Commercialisation of Truffles in Australasia

In New Zealand the primary aim of the first experimental truffières established in 1988 was to determine if large applications of lime to a variety of soils would successfully modify their pH, whether the fungus would survive in such soils in various parts of the country and whether truffles would be produced in them. The industry was essentially a government-supported initiative, and the first to produce commercial quantities was Alan Hall’s truffière near Gisborne when in March 1997 large numbers of large, but very immature, T. melanosporum truffles were discovered by accident. Subsequently, all but one of the truffières established in 1988 on warm sites produced.

The latitudes, elevation and some climatic data for the productive truffières are provided in Table 11.1 and Figs. 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3. In Fig. 11.1 the climatic data are compared with those in the T. melanosporum areas of Mende, Lozere, France, and Perugia, Italy, which are arguably the coolest and warmest areas of Europe to produce this truffle. Comparative soil temperature data are not available for many of the truffle-producing areas of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, although rough comparisons can be drawn from air temperatures combined with sunshine hours, both of which impact on soil temperature. Wind run might also affect soil temperature, but again, long-term data is not always available.

Table 11.1 A rough climatic comparison of centres adjacent to or with similar climates to Périgord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), Italian white truffle (T. magnatum), Burgundy truffle (T. aestivum) and bianchetto truffle-producing areas (From: Hall et al. 2008)
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Fig. 11.1
figure 00111

Mean monthly temperature curves, degree days (base 10 °C) and sunshine hours (ss hrs) for truffle-producing areas near Mende, Lozere, France; Perugia, Italy; Opotiki and Ashburton, New Zealand; and Panguipulli and Talca, Chile

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Fig. 11.2
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Mean monthly temperature curves, degree days (base 10 °C) and sunshine hours (ss hrs) for truffle-producing areas near Mende, Lozere, France; Perugia, Italy; Canberra, Deloraine and Manjimup, Australia; and Greeneville, Tennessee

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Fig. 11.3
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Mean monthly temperature curves, degree days (base 10 °C) and sunshine hours (ss hrs) for truffle-producing areas near Mende, Lozere, France; Perugia, Italy; and potential truffle-growing areas near Bahía Blanca, Argentina; Groenfontein, Western Cape, South Africa; and Rocha, Uruguay

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In Australia in the early 1990s, the industry began as a purely commercial activity. There was no necessity to repeat the New Zealand experiments, and significant plantings, some large, were planned from the outset. The first were contract grower plantings in Tasmania established by Périgord Truffles of Tasmania. In these, Périgord Truffles of Tasmania undertook to harvest, grade and market all truffles produced for a 50 % share of proceeds with the grower carrying the risk. The first black truffles in Australia were harvested in Tasmania in 1999 on a property owned by Truffles Australis at Deloraine (approx 41° 32′ S). Later developments in Tasmania were largely managed investment schemes, for example, two offered by the Tasmanian Truffle Enterprises Group in 2000 and 2002, each about 40 ha. Another managed investment scheme near Deloraine established by Agri-Truffle Pty Ltd involved some 90 investors with 20,000 trees planted over 60 ha between 2001 and 2005, and the first harvest was in 2008. Initially the managed investment schemes attracted a 150 % tax write-off. This tax write-off persuaded companies and the Collins Street cockies (intelligent, professional people with money— or investors wanting to be farmers without getting their hands dirty) to invest in truffle cultivation Table 11.2.

Table 11.2 Estimated numbers of truffle growers and planted areas in Australia in 2011
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In essence, the tax write-off helped fill what has been termed the “funding gap”—the financial bridge between the proof of an idea by science and its commercialisation (Ministry of Research, Science and Technology 2007). The tax benefit was discontinued in 2007, causing a large MIS to be cancelled in Tasmania (Australian Securities and Investments Commission 2010; Truffles Three Landco Limited 2007). Individual growers who could establish themselves as primary producers were entitled to deduct their losses from any source of taxable income or carry their tax losses forwards until production increased to a stage where a taxable profit was being made. These factors alone were sufficient to encourage the rapid establishment of a large truffle industry in Australia which is now perhaps 30 times the size of New Zealand’s and set to get even larger. At the same time, New Zealand was removing all tariffs and support for agriculture that made the cultivation of truffles, which was risky to start with, even more unattractive to the entrepreneur and investor. In addition to early tax write-offs, several Australian companies also obtained significant grants from the Commonwealth Government such as $250,000 worth of RIRDC (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation) grants to Perigord Truffles of Tasmania (2010).

Although New Zealand had investigation grants in the late 1980s for those establishing the first truffière in a region (Cook 2010), relative to the Australian tax subsidy, these grants were tiny. In 2001 an attempt to accelerate the establishment of a larger industry in New Zealand, Crop and Food Research, one of the government-owned Crown Research Institutes, helped established TRINZ International Limited (later renamed Truffle Investment New Zealand Limited), a joint venture partnership, with an entrepreneur (New Zealand Companies Office 2011). Regrettably, before this joint venture could properly get underway, the entrepreneur was declared insolvent (New Zealand Herald 2004).

In the late 1990s, interest turned to Western Australia where in 1997 a large corporate planting of about 21 ha (13,000 trees) was established at Manjimup (34°S) to produce both wine and truffles. The Wine and Truffle Company harvested their first truffle in 2004, and by 2008, the harvest had grown to 600 kg. Manjimup Truffles planted 7 ha between 1997 and 2001 and have been producing truffle since 2007. A 70 ha planting was established at Manjimup in 2006 as a managed investment scheme, close to the existing plantings of the Wine and Truffle Company and Manjimup Truffles. They were successful in harvesting truffle in 2010 after 4 years. Significant corporate and small holder plantings have continued in the Manjimup area, and by 2011, this area was producing in excess of 2 tonnes of saleable truffle.

Significant small holder plantings have continued in all states and territories of Australia with the exception of the Northern Territory. There are a small number of growers in Queensland (29°S) and in South Australia (35°S). Plantings in Victoria (37° to 38°S), as of 2011, are probably in excess of 50 ha with about 35 growers and a mix of small holders and contract growers. New South Wales (30° to 37°S) also has a mix of small holders and contract growers numbering about 70. The total area in NSW is probably in excess of 100 ha growing at various elevations. Across Australia, it is estimated that current plantings are approaching 700 ha. Most of the Eastern State plantings have been since 2000, and many have yet to come into significant production. In 2011 the estimated number of growers and areas planted is shown in Table 11.2, and production of truffle in Australia was in excess of 3 tonnes. Of the localities listed in Table 11.2, all have been producing truffles with the exception of South Australia, Cooma and Armidale in NSW and Colac in Victoria. The left-hand column of Table 11.2 shows the various business models adopted for production in Australia.

Despite the rapid growth of the industry, there are questions on the productivity of established plantings. Although there are about 150 growers across Australia, there are probably only 10–12 plantations producing at a commercial level [in excess of 30 kg of truffle (Duell 2011)]. It is further estimated that there are another 30 or 40 plantations producing less than 30 kg, which leaves about 100 plantations with no production. The industry is still mired in secrecy, but the threat of significant investment with little or no return is pushing growers to seek answers and to work with the industry to address issues. Recent work by the Australian National University has shown that, generally, the quality of inoculated trees on the market is poor with tested samples showing root-bound and J-rooted specimens with highly variable rates of infection and contamination with the inferior Tuber brumale Vittad. (Australian Truffle Growers’ Association 2011). This work clearly demonstrates the poor scientific base for the industry in Australia and the work that needs to be done with truffle-grading standards, certification of infected trees and production issues to correct the uninformed errors of the past.

4 Chile

The demonstration that truffles could be cultivated in New Zealand generated interest, not just in Australia but also in other Southern Hemisphere countries where climatic conditions appeared suitable for truffles. Chile was at the forefront, and researchers made fact-finding visits to New Zealand, Australia and Europe. The outcome was the establishment of a number of truffières with the first established in 2003 (Ramírez et al. 2007). By the end of 2007, more than 20 ha had been planted in Metropolitan, O’Higgins, del Maule, Bío-Bío, Araucanía y Los Ríos, Los Ríos y del Maule (Duao) and Panguipulli (Región de Los Ríos). By 2010, an additional 70 ha had been planted with the final aim of expanding to 150 ha (Fundación para la Innovación Agraria 2010). The total cost was 462 million Pesos (almost $1 million US dollars) of which 52 % was contributed by the Fundación para la Innovación Agraria, a section of the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture (Fundación para la Innovación Agraria 2010). The remainder was funded by the Maule Catholic University (Fotoquinta 2009) and Agro Biotruf (2010). Clearly, there does not appear to be a funding gap in Chile.

The first Chilean T. melanosporum truffles were harvested in 2009 in Panguipulli, Región de Los Ríos (39° 39′ S, elevation 268 m) (Fundación para la Innovación Agraria 2010). The following year, truffles were found under Quercus ilex at Duao (35° 43′ S, 163 m elevation), about 12 km southwest of Talca (35° 26′ S) (Andean Truffles 2010). In 2011 truffles were also harvested near Quepe and Chufquen, Traiguén (38° 15′, elevation 120 m), 4–5 years after planting (Andean Truffles 2011). Some climatic data for these areas are shown in Fig. 11.1.

5 Argentina, South Africa and Uruguay

Argentina spans similar latitudes to Chile, and there are certainly areas with winter and summer temperatures that should suit the cultivation of all four species of commercialised truffles. For example, the climate in Bahía Blanca appears about right for T. melanosporum. Similarly, a priori at an elevation of 250 m on the Cerro Catedral, Uruguay (about 2°C cooler throughout the year than Rocha) seems another possibility (Fig. 11.3). Establishing truffières at high elevations has also been used by Woodford Truffles SA (2011) on its Groenfontein property and its partners’ properties in South Africa (Fig. 11.3).

6 Quality Control of Plants

The chief method for producing T. melanosporum-infected plants in the Southern Hemisphere has been by inoculating clean seedlings or occasionally cuttings with a suspension of spores (Chap. 1; Hall et al. 2007, 2009). The method is capable of producing well-infected and uncontaminated plants providing certain precautions are taken: only clean, uncontaminated truffles of the desired species are used, no ascomycete or basidiomycete EM fungi contaminate the plants in the nursery and possibly, truffles are sourced from ideal locations (Hall et al. 2010). Because spores were the inoculum, it is most unlikely that there would have been a preponderance of either of the two mating types among mycorrhizas at the time the plants left the nurseries (Riccioni et al. 2010a, b).

One way of helping limit the chances of contamination is to take small samples from each truffle to be used in an inoculum and then confirm their identity using morphological and molecular tools (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 2008). Of course, there is always the possibility that small fragments of another species might be secreted in a crevice on the much larger piece of truffle that is not sampled. This applies whether morphological or molecular techniques are used, a factor often misunderstood by the ill-informed blinded by high-tech methodologies. It is possible that this is how some plants became contaminated with Tuber brumale in New Zealand (Guerin-Laguette et al. 2011). However, there are examples in Australasia of truffières with significant numbers of plants contaminated with T. brumale, AD-like fungi or basidiomycetes such as Hebeloma. Possibilities range from the accidental incorporation of previously rejected truffles in inoculum, absence of quality control during the production of inocula or prior-to-sale inspections of mycorrhizas, no after-sales follow-up surveys of mycorrhizas in established truffières, and hopefully not, callous disregard or sabotage.

The potential contamination problem on truffle plants was identified in Australia in a RIRDC report (Stahle and War 1996), but regrettably the recommendations were not followed up at the time due to the lack of a representative growers’ association or any other suitable mechanism of control. The report did, however, prompt tree producers to target growing areas on the Mainland, particularly in Victoria and NSW. An Australian Truffle Growers’ Association was established by Wayne Haslam in late 2006 and is presently concerned with a number of industry development issues, including the significant percentage of nonproducing truffières and reported contamination of established truffières by other species as referred to in earlier paragraphs. The Association is seeking to establish a tree certification process during 2012. This would be based on the process established in Spain for the government-subsidised truffle industry. The Australian scheme will be self-funded, and inoculated tree producers that accept the certification process will be acknowledged by the Association as being a reliable source of inoculated trees.

7 Quality Control of Truffles

A grading standard needs to be agreed between truffle producers in Australia and New Zealand. An attempt was made to reach agreement on a grading standard in 2009, based on the European Union grading standard, and a considerable amount of work was done towards reaching agreement between the New Zealand and the Australian Associations. However, this was rejected at a meeting of the major producers in Australia in early 2011, resulting in a rethink of a constructive approach to developing a workable standard that incorporates the European standard requirements but also meets the needs of Australian producers. Part of the problem is the difficulty of incorporating the aromatic attributes, covering the truffles allowable as imports into Australia (currently only T. melanosporum, Tuber magnatum Pico, Tuber aestivum Vittad./Tuber uncinatum Chatin and Tuber borchii Vittad.) and allowing cut pieces as an acceptable product. This is an ongoing activity and includes input from the electronic nose project being undertaken at the University of Western Australia (see below). Once drafted, it will need to be tested on export market clients to ensure their needs are also met.

8 Marketing

When Ian Hall conceived the production of truffles in the Southern Hemisphere for off-season Northern Hemisphere markets, French T. melanosporum production had slumped from maybe 2,000 tonnes in the 1880s (Chap. 1) to 1,000 tonnes in 1904 to an average of around 100 tonnes in the 1970s (Hall et al. 2007). Over the same time, the world’s population had risen from 1.5 billion to more than 6 billion (Wikipedia 2011), and disposable income in developed countries, and in some sections of the population in developing countries, had soared (e.g. The Telegraph 2011). Australian production in 2011 exceeded 3 tonnes, but wholesale prices in the international markets appear to have been lower than those charged in the northern truffle season 6 months before. The market for Australian truffles offshore in 2011 suffered the impact of the global financial crisis and the high value of the Australian dollar. There was also significant competition between Australian producers for a share of the market. If growers do not cooperate to export the Australian product collectively, the rapid increase in production in Australia (predicted to be at least 30 % per annum, initially), then the price will continue to struggle to match the northern season price.

Another concern in Australia is that some people are calling T. melanosporum the “black winter truffle”. This is a quality control issue and will need to be addressed for the export market. In Latin the word “brumale” is the word for “the winter solstice” and the Latin brumalis is “connected with winter”. This is causing some concern in the industry, given the recognised contamination of some truffières with T. brumale and the fact that “T. brumale” is literally the winter truffle and worth a fraction of the price of T. melanosporum.

9 Research Funding

The truffle industry in New Zealand cannot be considered a success when compared to Australia and faces many challenges, including nonproducing truffières and inadequate government support for research and development. One reason why this new opportunity of considerable potential had to struggle to find funding in New Zealand lies with a change to the New Zealand system of funding science. In 1989 New Zealand research on truffles was aimed at establishing a new crop, its findings were confidential and publications were discouraged. In contrast, half a decade later, the system had turned turtle, and the mark of success of a science project was measured in numbers and quality of scientific papers (Hall 2008).

In New Zealand after 1995, small grants from AGMARDT and Technology New Zealand (Technology for Business Growth) were the only support for research on T. melanosporum in New Zealand. So in 1999, at the instigation of Ian Hall, the then Secretary of the New Zealand Truffle Association, Crop and Food Research agreed to collect a $5 research levy on each T. melanosporum-infected plant it sold on behalf of the New Zealand Truffle Association. This money attracted a 50/50 subsidy from Technology New Zealand, and together with a grant from AGMARDT, a modest but very worthwhile study was carried out over 3 years on factors that might affect fruiting of T. melanosporum (Hall et al. 2002). That the soil and temperature data accumulated over many years from productive and nonproductive New Zealand truffières is still being used is testimony to its potential value. Levies and money from New Zealand Truffle Association subscriptions were also used to carry out a further study between 2006 and 2010.

In Australia the truffle industry is rapidly maturing, and the Association is seeking to fund research and development, including production issues and marketing research. Funding sources that are being considered include higher association fees and levies on existing trees, new trees and production. The Association is able to attract Commonwealth Government support based on funds generated by the industry and is seeking an annual revenue of some A$100,000 to meet the association’s operational needs and address the current list of research and development priorities: truffle rot, genetic diversity of truffle in Australia and electronic methods for determining quality.

10 Truffle Rot

A major problem of truffle production in parts of Australia is that a large proportion of truffles are on or close to the surface rendering them susceptible to predators and physical and weather damage. This is particularly the situation in Western Australia and parts of Tasmania. Work by Harry Eslick of the Wine and Truffle Company in Western Australia has looked at management practices to address these issues, including the levels of canopy cover and irrigation practices (Eslick 2011a, b). While irrigation was considered one of the main areas of investigation during 2011, results have been inconclusive. However, there are indications that lower levels of irrigation may reduce rot. Bacterial pathogens have not been ruled out either, although inoculation of healthy truffles with bacteria from rotten truffles has failed to produce symptoms.

As with any crop, pests and pathogens such as nematodes, bacteria, fungi and insect larvae can affect the quality of truffles (Hall et al. 2007). With truffles, the problems are compounded because the health of the host tree also has to be considered. The solutions to these problems for other crops might be the application of fertilisers, nematocides, antibiotics, fungicides or insecticides. But a plant pathologist will always first consider if the growing conditions have been optimal and determine whether the rainfall/irrigation has been excessive or insufficient, the weather has been unusually warm or cold, etc. Although the temperature curves for Manjimup, Western Australia, suggest that winter temperatures there are well above the range for truffle-producing areas of France and Italy, it has not yet been determined if this has a bearing on truffle rot (Fig. 11.2; Table 11.1).

11 Genetic Diversity of T. melanosporum in Australia

Research by Dr. Celeste Linde of the Australian National University on microsatellite analyses of 210 truffle samples collected from various truffle-producing regions in Australia showed that there was considerable genetic diversity with 51 genotypes identified. In comparison, a similar European study found only 22 genotypes out of 206 samples. Also, more alleles per locus were identified in Australia than in the European study (Riccioni et al. 2008). For all loci, the most common allele found in Europe was also present in Australia. For one locus, the 2 alleles found previously in Europe, as well as an additional 7 alleles were found in Australia. Alleles and genotypes present in Australia match genotypes previously reported from Spain, France and Italy and therefore represent a wide geographic gene pool.

The genetic pool of truffles in Australia is sufficiently large to be an unlikely barrier to truffle production. However, an unknown at this stage is whether truffles possess vegetative incompatibility groups (VCGs) that facilitate the disappearance of one mating type after inoculation. Fungal isolates that belong to different VCGs cannot interact genetically, even if they belong to different mating types. However, VCGs have not been identified in truffles but are speculated to be present (Riccioni et al. 2010b). An alternative, and undoubtedly controversial explanation, might be that if one of the mating types is not as well adapted to the climatic or edaphic conditions, it may simply be outcompeted for sites on the roots by the other.

12 Electronic Nose Project

Past research on truffle aromas and possible methods to detect truffles using them has been conducted in the past but without great success (Hall et al. 2007). The incentives for more work were developments in nanotechnology in substance detection. A project under the direction of Professor Garry Lee at the University of Western Australia is primarily aimed at establishing a basis for the grading of truffles, based on aromatics, and developing a prototype tool that would assist growers in product grading, ensure consistency and retain a market premium for the highest quality truffle. The project will investigate the qualitative change in truffle volatiles at different stages of fruiting using chemical instrumentation and organoleptic techniques. The essential truffle aromas will be characterised with chemistry, using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and correlated to the sensory analysis. Work up to 2011 is showing promising results with truffle from various parts of Australia being assessed and with subtle regional differences in aromas being detected.

13 The Future

Clearly, there is great potential for the cultivation of truffles and other edible mycorrhizal mushrooms in the Southern Hemisphere both for home and Northern Hemisphere off-season markets. However, the lesson learned from the Australian T. melanosporum programme is that cultivation practices cannot simply be transferred with an expectation of immediate success. Also, for those who are successful, marketing simply cannot be left to chance and the assumption that Northern Hemisphere clients will be pounding on your door when a new mushroom becomes available out of season. Similarly, home markets will have to be skilfully created where perhaps none existed before. The lessons show that emerging industries should:

  • Do the market research first to ensure that there is a viable market for the proposed new product and there is a workable supply chain to get the product to the market.

  • Do the sums thoroughly, using conservative estimates of yields and prices, to ensure a viable prospect of getting a return on capital and labour in the medium term.

  • Establish an industry-wide association as early as possible, with good leadership to set industry-wide goals and have buy-in of all stakeholders.

  • Only continue to invest in solving production issues when the market prospects are shown to be viable.

For the successful ventures, there is nothing the media like more than a happy story amidst the depressing miasma afflicting the world. They are often delighted to help. The media can also play a big role in ensuring the new product is introduced to and understood by the local consumers, and have shown to be a significant market resource for local growers. Finally and above all, the new products have to be carefully introduced to the chefs, so that they can be prepared with new dishes to suit the new products. The last thing the industry needs is a chef who presents a magnificent dish and with much aplomb shaves slices of a superb truffle over the surface of the food before adding a dash of (synthetic) truffle oil (Parker Bowles 2009)!