Italian White Truffle

The “Italian” white truffle.

By Carlo Raspollini - Author of television programs Radio Televisione Italiana.

Italy is a blessed land where, along the dorsal Appennino mountains, there are areas with microclimates and flora both favourable to the emergence of areas truffle. These areas range from Piedmont Molise to Calabria and are often unknown by the majority of the population, including resident people.
The Tuber magnatum Pico, with the designation of "white truffle of Alba and Acqualagna" is, by law, recognized as the finest white. Few people know that the production of this gem of nature, the two kind recognized by law, is relative and could never reach the measure of the marketed product.
Often the supply is from other areas where the production is higher and where truffle searchers are willing and prefer to go to more dynamic markets to derive higher profits with the best pieces. So truffles from Tuscany, Romagna and Umbria take the streets of the Langhe and then are sold as truffles of Alba.
    
For years the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and important farmers' organizations such as Coldiretti and the CIA or the owners of farms such as Confagricoltura, have been discussing about  the need for traceability and the maximum transparency in the chain of agro-food products, an advantage of the possibilities of choice. The same thing goes for the truffle. The time is ripe to say from which territories white truffles come and to identify the quality for the areas not recognized by law.

In the world everybody we knows that Italy produces quality. Fashion, cars, design, art and history of Italian culture are a source of attraction and interest for foreign tourists and even most of the food and wine. Foreign buyers from all over the world may know of the existence of Italy and, in general terms, they know its history and its role in human history.

Certainly they know little and are little interested in our regional questions and in our nice medieval disputes that still permeate the collective life. The distance between Alba and San Miniato, and between Campobasso and Acqualagna, and between them all is entirely indifferent and Tuscany and Piedmont are two small regions of a country far away, in the south of Europe.

If we want to become known in the market of vast size and huge population, we must adapt to their way of thinking, at least in the communication. Speaking of Italian truffle becomes a necessity so obvious as not to need further explanation. In that sense from any region they come, even if they declare in the coming events, promotions, events taking place on national territory, as a minimum compensation of reputation and image to these realities.