Truffle value chain and consumer markets

In Spain, truffle season ends March 15th, and legally, we can sell fresh truffles a week later. I did this picture last Monday at the home of one of the largest buyers in the country, these are the truffles bought at the latest weekend market this season 2013-14, which closes with about 40 tons in Spain. The quality is excellent, we have the most mature and fragrant truffle, and although usually the latests weeks truffles become smaller, as you can see in the picture, was still out first quality truffle.
Moreover, possibly have been imported 15-20 tons of Chinese truffles in Spain, which are used largely not in restaurants but in industry and supermarkets once canned. The latter, which is commonly found in jars of 10gr, only 10% is black truffle, 45% Chinese and 45% summer truffle.
I think it’s worth explaining something about the value chain of this product, as there are still those who believe that all truffles are sold at exorbitant prices to restaurants. I try to put in percentages, in addition to the amount of soil and clay that is lost when cleaning, the main destinations for consumption:
13-15% dirt/soil
30% consumed in fresh
5% freeze
5% canned in supermarkets (small few grams jars)
5% canned restaurants (0,5-1kg cans)
40% industrial applications, mainly what we called “brisura”, that to be honest I don’t know the right word in english. This are truffles that have been choped or smashed and later canned in autoclaves in cans of 1-2kgs each.

We must also bear in mind that not all the resturants buying truffles, they use them in fresh, but they themselves make their own preserves, so the real percentage of truffle that is still consumed fresh in less that 30%.

Part of the truffle is cooked to get truffle juice, sold at restaurants and industry about 50-60€ / liter. To produce this truffle juice, each kilo of truffles can obtain 500g of juice, and during this process truffle loses 20-25% of its weight.

It’s easy now to understand why there is a such a big difference from the price at origin of dirty truffles, all qualities mixed, and the final price at restaurant (usually more than double), as truffles that end at restaurants are just a small percentage (a good year like this around 30%, but a bad year with no truffles, it is up to 50%). Moreover, the rest of canned truffles compete in a global marked with low target prices.

Regards,
Marcos S. Morcillo