Global truffle market: Theoretical aspects and empirical evidence

The truffle has gone from being a culinary singularity of certain Mediterranean regions (France, Italy and Spain) to becoming in recent decades a luxury commodity in the agricultural markets with high prices and high profitability for producers and suppliers. This truffle's centrality generates a constant rising demand that provokes new suppliers to try to enter this market within the framework of globalization. Until now, studies about truffles have focused mainly on physical, biological and agribusiness aspects. This study proposes a descriptive analysis of the global truffle market. based on the following reseach question: What are the changes that Globalization entails in the production and international market of truffles?This study proposes a descriptive analysis of the global truffle market based on the following reseach question: What are the changes that Globalization entails in the production and international market of truffles?

The analysis starts with truffle production, focuses on the factors that determine it, and has a direct impact on the supply. To analyse the interaction between supply and demand for truffles, we have generated two double-entry matrices where the ten largest importers and the ten largest exporters are analysed in relation to prices and quantities imported and exported. To this end, we have studied the factors determining production and prices of truffles, as well as the interrelations in the global market and the added social and ecological value of their cultivation.

The fundamental result of the analysis is a three-dimensional and holistic image of the whole market that reflects both the interacting agents in terms of production and trade, import and export, and product flows in the world.

Truffles are not only important for their commercial and market value, but also for their environmental and social values. The cultivation of truffles is a driver of agricultural an rural development as the experience of certain rural-continental areas in the European Union evidences. These values are particularly important because they configure the truffle as a community commodity whose production can benefit both the rural population and territory in question.