Seven years after establishing a Borchii truffle-inoculated orchard in the high-altitude North West Province of South Africa, Froneman and Ilse Laubscher of De La Vie Truffle Farm near Klerksdorp stand ready to export Borchii Bianchetto truffles.
De La Vie Truffle Farm is represented by Imifino Exports, always ready to tackle something no one else is exporting.
Vincent Keesenberg, managing director of Imifino Exports, looked on as the first truffles for export were sniffed out by the Froneman family's Beagle, trained by themselves. "It's an amazing process to witness," he says. The Laubscher couple told local television programme Nisboere ('Niche farmers') that a visiting borehole technician had shown them the truffles already growing in their soil, unbeknownst to them. From already being orchardists, it was a logical step for the microbiologists to venture into truffle cultivation.
© Imifino Exports
June to September harvest window
The first truffles to Europe from De La Vie Truffles Farm arrived this week in the Netherlands. Truffles are harvested here from June until September, when the Northern Hemisphere has a shortage because the bianchetto truffle is harvested between January and April in countries like Italy.
Apart from Europe, Keesenberg is keen to supply truffle enterprises in the United States with the crop harvested in South Africa. Executive chefs at top-tier restaurants could be supplied with truffles at a time when they are not available in the Northern Hemisphere.
"Truffles are a delicate product whose unique flavours are experienced when used as fresh as possible. The freshly harvested truffles cannot be preserved or frozen."
© Imifino Exports
The Borchii–Bianchetto type truffle, also known as a white spring truffle, is a smidgen less expensive than the black truffle, hence its growth in popularity among Michelin-starred chefs worldwide, but especially in the United States. He remarks that this type of truffle surpasses, in quality, the most commonly sold truffle, the white truffle.
Imifino Exports will attend the annual Napa Truffle Festival in California's Napa Valley, USA, in 2026.
For more information:
Vincent Keesenberg
Imifino Exports (Pty) Ltd
Tel: +27 82 561 3278
Email: [email protected]
https://www.imifino.co.za/
