I did some digging on the USDA web site and found that truffle imports are down dramatically over the last decade compared to previous years.
One troubling sign that stands out in the data is that we are importing more Chinese truffles. These inferior Chinese truffles (Tuber sinensis) are not to be confused with the aromatic tuber melanosporum. The unfortunately thing is that the Chinese truffles look exactly like the Périgord black truffle but lacks the aroma and flavor. Toss a few Périgord in with some Chinese truffles to punch the armoa and most people would never know the difference until they sat down and tasted it. Why is this bad? For a lot of reasons but let's just look at the economics of it for starters. Melanosporum goes for about $1000/lb US, Sinensis about $7/lb. If a person has never had a truffle and their first experience is a Chinese one, they will come away confused as to why truffles are so expensive. Another issue is that this truffle species is very aggressive and if the Chinese truffle spores were to get into a person's orchard, it would most likely wipe out their melanosporum. This is currently a huge issue in Europe as the Chinese truffle is starting to pop up in well established Périgord truffle orchards in France.
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| Tuber Sinensis |
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| Tuber Melanosporum |
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