Alba white truffle sells for €100,000 at charity auction

An 850-gram Alba white truffle sold for €100,000 to a Hong Kong buyer on Sunday, the top price at the 27th World Truffle Auction, as Piedmont's drought-hit season drew record international bidding.

The sale was organised by Enoteca Piemonte Cavour in Alba, the Piedmont town at the centre of Italy's white truffle trade. A second lot, a 300-gram truffle, changed hands twice: the first bidder dropped out after offering €12,000, and a local businessman then bought it for €14,000.

Drought shaped this year's hunt

This year, truffles have suffered somewhat from the drought.

Roberto Bondritto, president of Enoteca Piemonte Cavour, told AFP that truffles had "suffered somewhat from the drought" this season. Recent rain has helped the harvest recover, and he said he expects conditions to keep improving before the year is out.

The Alba white truffle, known scientifically as Tuber magnatum Pico, grows wild underground, attached to the roots of specific trees. It needs cool, moist soil through its growth and maturation, which leaves it unusually exposed to a dry autumn.

A charity sale with a global reach

Bondritto said this year's auction has never had such an international character. Four new venues joined the bidding: Brasília, London, Macau and Vilnius, alongside regulars Hong Kong, Bangkok and Vienna, for nine cities bidding simultaneously by video link.

Proceeds go to charitable projects in Italy and abroad. Since the first edition in 1999, organisers say they have raised about €7.2 million, funding work that includes a hospital in Africa, reintegration programmes for young people recovering from drug addiction, and schooling for children in Brazilian favelas.

Last year's auction raised €502,000 in total, with its top lot, a 1,009-gram truffle, fetching €110,000, also to a Hong Kong buyer. This year's headline truffle was smaller and sold for less, though the final tally for the full event was not yet confirmed.

The wider fair behind the auction runs most weekends from mid-October to late November, pulling chefs and buyers into a town whose economy leans hard on three autumn months. Some hunters have already begun trialling irrigation to beat the drought that shaped this season.