I´ve been working with truffles in the last 28 years and honestly last season was one of the worst I´ve seen in many areas in Spain. Catalonia and Teruel region had a really bad season, while some areas further north and west (Navarra, Alava, Burgos, Soria, Guadalajara…) had a cooler weather and more rain, so had a good harvest, similar to the previous 2022-23 (that was a bad one anyway).
It is the first time I´ve seen truffle prices in Spain being higher than in France, as their harvest this winter was better than in Spain. Production has been definitely lower than 22-23 and less than half of the great 2021-22 season.
Unusual warm spring, especially in April-May 2023, plus extremely heat waves combined with a lack of rain created this horrible season. We are 3 years in a row with low rain, in some areas the annual accumulated rain is less than 10% of a normal year! most crops are struggling and water conductivity raised in some main rivers, reservoirs and wells.
In the following figure you can see how soil conductivity doubled in a year, in an irrigated truffle orchard:
Season started with an autumn and early winter warmer than normal, that made the truffle beetle Leiodes to boost and spread everywhere increasing damage on yields, what is reflected in the low prices at the beginning of the season. Beetle last until late January where it was pretty difficult to find batches of truffles without any holes in the fruit bodies. Season ended quite late in March though, so a little bit longer than other years.
As always you can compare spanish prices with the french ones at https://rnm.franceagrimer.fr/prix
The spanish “Secretaría de Estado de Comercio” says that 34,6 milion € were exported just on Tuber melanosporum, almost half of it was done from Teruel region, the largest producer, with 24,9 tonnes this year. Due to higher prices, exports are similar to last year 2022-23, although with less product volume.
60% of Teruel´s region truffles have been exported to France (although when we take into account the total spanish production, France imports just 28% of our truffles), followed by Italy with 25% of exports. Belgium, Germany, Denmark and UK are the other main importers of Teruel truffle.
This year a Government irrigation project has been finished in the Sarrion area (a zone with the highest truffle orchards density in Teruel) and growers will be able to water for the first time 1.000 new hectares this summer! It will be nice to see if yields increase as expected next winter.
All the best to the south hemisphere growers that just started their harvest!
Marcos Morcillo
trufflefarming 