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Heat and drought squeeze white truffle harvests in Italy and Croatia
The Associated Press reported that hunters and researchers in Piedmont and Croatia described smaller, scarcer white truffles after hot, dry summers, with some forest-management experiments under way.
- New headline Was: “From Italy to Croatia, a warming climate threatens prized white truffles”
- Our desk filed its story
Based on reporting by AP
Hunters and researchers in northern Italy and Croatia described a weaker white-truffle season after hot, dry months, according to The Associated Press1.
Around Alba in Piedmont, the National Centre for Truffle Studies said October production and shelf life were poor after little rain in July and August and high temperatures, and that dry, compacted soils yielded smaller fungi this season1. White truffles depend on cool, moist soils and tree roots, the report said1.
Alba's International White Truffle Fair opened Oct. 10 and runs through Dec. 61. The fair's president said the season started slowly after a hot, dry summer, that later rain brought larger specimens, and that market prices were about 20% to 30% higher than a year earlier while lodging during the fair was largely sold out1.
In oak woods outside Zagreb, a hunter told AP that harvests had worsened for seven or eight years and that this year's take was about 30% below normal1. A mycologist at the Rudjer Boskovic Institute said Croatia has about a dozen truffle species, that white truffles can sell for as much as 4,000 euros ($4,500) a kilogram, and that drought and heat reduce quantity, quality and the area where they grow1.
Piedmont researchers said they do not see extinction but a challenge, and are studying forest management and experimental irrigation1. Unlike black truffles, reliable commercial growing of white truffles remains elusive, AP reported1.
