More Truffles in the Pacific Northwest

More Truffles in the Pacific Northwest

More Truffles in the Pacific Northwest

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Yesterday we learned that truffles, one of the costliest of mushrooms in the world, are native to the Pacific Northwest. It can be a very lucrative business, but just what does it take to start a truffle orchard?

Dr. Charles Lefevre, president of New World Truffieres shares more details.

Lefevre: “Production costs, it typically costs about $10,000 to $12,000 per acre to establish a truffle orchard. Components of the cost are the inoculated trees are about 40 percent of it, an irrigation system -- they absolutely do require irrigation throughout the Northwest. Most soils in the Northwest require lime. Although the major exception is in Central Idaho in the Boise area there are a lot of naturally high PH soils there. Then of course then the labor to install the irrigation system and to work the lime into the soil.”

Orchards typically begin producing truffles about in about five years, though Lefevre mentioned that some orchards have produced earlier.

What about costs once the truffle orchard is up and producing?

Lefevre: “The production costs after the orchard is established; we assume that it takes two and half person days of labor per acre per year. So production costs are relatively low. It is comparable to establishing and maintaining a vineyard.”

He says that each acre of orchard can produce approximately 35 pounds of truffles per year. Truffles can sell from $900 to $1200 per pound.


For more information about truffle production in the Pacific Northwest go to www.truffletree.com 

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