The black truffles from Romania are not having a good time this year. As restaurants closed during the pandemic, business has been very slow. One Romanian exporter states that she does see some demand from Belgium and Germany, but would like to enter the market in the United Kingdom as well to increase the export potential.
It’s been rough times for the Romanian black truffles, says Pop Doralin, owner of Romanian truffle exporter SC Montana. “The black truffle market is quite slow at the moment, similar to last year. Availability is not the problem though, we have loads of quantities and we can ship all over Europe. Naturally the market slowed down when restaurants and other catering sectors closed down completely. To show you the effect, last year I sold about 100kg of truffles every week, whereas this year I sell about 30 to 40kg per week.”
Although demand is lower, it’s not completely gone. And two of Doralin’s main markets still have a healthy demand for the black truffles: “When looking at the origin of the demand that is there, we see demand from Germany and Belgium. Our best markets are Austria, Germany, France, Belgium and Holland. We would like to enter the United Kingdom soon as well though, which could increase our exported volumes.”
Doralin still believes in the Romanian truffles. She claims the quality is so good, some Italian are reselling the truffles as if they are Italian. “The Romanian truffles are of good quality. The truffles smell exceptionally nice in the autumn. Many companies from Italy import Romanian truffles and then resell them as if they were Italian. Although not a good thing, it’s a staple of how good the quality in Romania actually is. Truffles from Romania find their ways to consumers’ plates all over the world. As a country, Romania has the potential to sell about 40 to 50 tons of black truffles and 4 to 6 tons of white truffles every year at the very minimum,” she concludes.
For more information:
Pop Doralin
SC Montana Ro
Tel: +40 742 312 916
Email: montana.ro68@yahoo.com