New CRC project to lay groundwork for Australian truffle industry expansion

Best ‘gem’ black winter truffle of Wilson’s truffle-growing business Great Southern Truffles’ 2020 season. In 2018, the ABS predicted that Australia’s truffle exports would grow to 20 tonnes by 2025, with a value of $16m p.a. Credit: Silverplace

Can Australia successfully introduce more truffle species, expanding production, extending the truffle season, realising the industry’s export potential and boosting truffle producers’ bottom lines? The ‘Australian truffles’ project aims to find out.

While comparatively small, Australia’s truffle industry – concentrated in Western Australia – enjoys a high standing internationally. Most Australian truffle exports are prized black winter truffles, which sell for around $2,500 a kilogram.

Market values currently sit at $10m p.a. from primarily fresh black truffles. In 2021, our in-house calculations saw Australia export 12 tonnes, of which WA accounted for almost 95%. And direct sales of Australian truffle are set to double, then triple over the next 5-10 years as new crops and truffle species are grown. To realise the potential returns, however, Australia’s burgeoning truffle industry requires a concomitant expansion in R&D capabilities and investment. This will protect existing production and help Australian growers expand into new species, locations and agro-ecologies.

Hence, Silverplace’s partnership with fellow growers and Murdoch University mycologists in a four-year CRC project, commencing July 2022, that aims to improve industry ‘best practice’ and introduce new truffle species to Australia.

The project has potential to triple the Australian truffle harvest season, expand the industry in a well-managed, sustainable way, and significantly increase growers’ ROI.

“Advancing truffle practices and methods from an art to a science will enable WA’s truffle industry to expand to become a major producer of quality culinary truffles,” Wilson says.