Truffles are 'white gold' in Italy

DW (English)

Gourmets pay top dollar for truffle mushrooms, and an increasing number of farms want to cash in. But all the hard work would go to waste without a good sniffer dog.

Transcript

00:00 Bravo, bravo.

00:02 Did you dig it out?

00:04 Slowly.

00:05 This is what Michele Filosi and Argo love doing most.

00:09 Stop.

00:10 The two are hunting for truffles.

00:17 The white truffle season is over.

00:19 Now Argo is sniffing out its little brother called Bianchetto.

00:24 You have to be careful not to damage white truffles

00:28 because it would cut the value of the precious fungi in half.

00:32 Bianchetto truffles are much cheaper.

00:35 A kilo costs around 300 euros.

00:38 For a kilo of white truffles, you can get 7, even 10,000 euros.

00:43 They're much rarer.

00:45 Where is it?

00:47 Find it, my love.

00:49 Since he was a child, Michele has forged for truffles

00:52 around his Umbrian hometown of Montelioni d'Orvieto.

00:57 His dog Argo has been at his side for five years.

01:01 A good truffle hunting dog makes for better business,

01:04 but it also comes with unexpected dangers.

01:08 All truffles are expensive, regardless of the type.

01:11 There are some cruel people in the business

01:13 who see truffle hunting as a war.

01:16 They'll stop at nothing.

01:18 They'll hide poisoned meatballs where your car is parked,

01:21 laced with strychnine or snail poison.

01:26 They'll poison your dog over money.

01:31 So he stays undercover,

01:34 which also stops snoops from discovering his secret spots.

01:38 He keeps them all jotted down in a notebook and on his cell phone.

01:42 It's a treasure map that the 38-year-old wouldn't share with anyone.

01:47 Michele sells some of the treasures he finds,

01:49 but the professional chef prepares most of them at Café 7.

01:53 He runs the Little Gourmet Truffle Restaurant

01:56 along with his brother, Andrea.

01:59 Did you find anything?

02:02 Of course.

02:04 Look at this bianchetto.

02:08 Where'd you find it?

02:10 Forget it.

02:11 You might be my brother, but I'm not telling you.

02:15 100 kilometers away, they're unlocking truffles' big secrets

02:19 at the headquarters of Orbani Tartuffi's Truffle Empire.

02:23 The company has cornered over 60% of the global truffle market.

02:27 For years, scientists there have been trying to crack the genetic code

02:31 of the precious fungi.

02:33 They, too, guard their company secrets like a treasure.

02:37 We're not allowed to film inside their labs.

02:40 The results of their research are being put into practice

02:43 at their startup, Truffle Land.

02:47 When repotting the plants,

02:49 we bring the roots into contact with truffle spores,

02:52 in this case with the highly prized black truffle.

02:56 We expose the plants to the spores,

02:59 and a year after repotting, we have them checked.

03:03 An independent office confirms whether the roots

03:06 and the truffle spores have developed a symbiosis.

03:09 If they have, we receive a certificate,

03:12 and we can sell that batch.

03:16 Truffle Land currently plants over 100,000 trees a year.

03:20 Areas selected for cultivation are equipped with sensors,

03:23 providing data on soil moisture and regulating water supply.

03:28 Once they've grown, the black truffles just need a dog

03:31 to come and sniff them out.

03:33 That's what Candida and Sally do for a living.

03:39 We collect from 11 in the morning until around 4pm,

03:42 unless there's frost.

03:44 Then we're not allowed to hunt for truffles,

03:46 as it damages the soil.

03:48 These cultivated truffles smell just as strong as the other ones.

03:51 We call them our black diamonds.

03:57 It takes around six years for an area planted like this

04:00 to bear fruit, or rather truffles.

04:04 With this method, the world's largest truffle company

04:07 can guarantee its supply.

04:09 Demand is high, and climate change has led to increased scarcity,

04:12 the head of the family business says.

04:14 Farmers and landowners can also reap the benefits

04:17 of truffle cultivation.

04:20 Truffles yield the most profitable crops in the world.

04:25 One hectare that's being used to grow truffles

04:28 can bring in 100,000 euros each year.

04:35 This black truffle weighs half a kilo and is valued at 600 euros.

04:40 It'll soon be sold to customers in the US.

04:43 We'll most likely sell this truffle to someone in New York.

04:46 There it'll end up in a Michelin-class restaurant,

04:49 where it will be carried from table to table

04:51 and grated onto the dishes.

04:53 It's so beautiful.

04:56 Beautiful, delicious, expensive, and,

04:58 despite our high-tech world,

05:00 still being hunted by the same old symbiotic team,

05:03 humans and dogs.

Category

Transcript

Recommended