Last Saturday, La Sexta broadcasted a 2018 program made by Equipo de Investigación that delved into the truffle business in France and tried to ascertain what happened to the 50,000 kilos of Spanish truffles that France imports every year.
In the program, a trader who assured that a reputed French market sometimes replenishes its stock with Spanish truffles without telling its customers. "It's very difficult to verify if French producers are buying Spanish truffles before bringing them to market. It is easy for them to make you think that it's their own production. We have no way of knowing if they're selling Spanish truffles unless they tell us that they're doing so," he said.
Equipo de Investigación met with French businessman Pierre-Jean Pebeyre, the man who invited them to his facilities in France, in a market in the Teruel municipality of Sarrión.
Pierre-Jean Pebeyre acknowledged that, on occasions, he buys truffles in Teruel and then sells them. However, his customers don't necessarily know where it came from. "In my invoices, I say they are truffles of European origin," he stated.
When the news team showed him one of his cans that said 'French product', the businessman said that the truffle wasn't produced in France, but that it was canned in France.
According to the news program, 80% of the black truffle that is collected in Teruel ends up in France, where it is sold for up to 1,300 euro per kilo.
Click here to watch the program again.
Source: lasexta.com