A recent study foresees the end of the black truffle market – Italian Cuisine


A recently published study foresees the end of the European black truffle industry by 2071. Cause? Climate change

In the last year, fans of black truffle they will certainly have enjoyed theexceptional decline in prices registered in Italy of this fine ingredient. An analysis of Coldiretti has indeed highlighted that in 2018, due to bad weather, the harvest was exceptionally abundant, giving consumers a consequent drop in costs with relative travel to purchases. For truffle lovers, therefore, the results of a research carried out by the Scottish University of Stirling arrive as a bolt from the blue. the production of black truffles in Europe is about to disappear completely by 2100 due to climate change.

Last decades of production of the black truffle

This report, entitled A risk assessment of the European black truffle sector under predicted climate changes, published at the end of 2018 in the journal "Science of the Total Environment", is the result of a study conducted by a team of researchers, based on the observation of 36 years of production of the black truffle in Italy, Spain and France. The team then compared the data collected with those concerning the weather conditions of this period, and with those planned for the next years. What emerged is that climate change in progress, the gradual increase in temperatures and the dry climate will be a significant obstacle to black truffles, causing decrease between 78 and 100% of European truffle production between 2071 and 2100. This process could even be accelerated by any other factors that may arise, such as droughts, heat waves, forest fires, parasites.
In short, really dramatic forecasts that will lead to a price increase of the black truffle; the value of the world market, which is currently hundreds of millions of euros, could in fact grow to 5 billion euros over the next two decades.

Black truffle.

Goodbye to the delicious and precious black truffle

This underground fungus, which needs specific climatic factors, a favorable moist soil and that is cultivated mostly in nature, will become an increasingly rare and precious good, until the inevitable disappearance. Beyond thesocio-economic impact of the expected decline, it is also the world of catering to make the expenses. This delicious ingredient is in fact loved by chefs all over the world and rooted in the history and culinary traditions of different countries. In Italy, if we talk about black truffles, we can not help but think of some traditional recipes Which tagliolini with black truffles, risotto with truffles or fried eggs with truffles.

In short, as the chief researcher Paul Thomas and his team explained, if we want to save this ingredient from our tables, all we have to do is to safeguard the environment, while it is up to the experts to proceed with the necessary conservation and protection initiatives of this species, considering, for example, the expansion of truffle plantations in new territories with a more favorable future climate.

Photo: Tuber_macrosporum_Tartufo nero_Wikipedia_Nicolò Oppicelli.jpg

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