Truffle gold under the trees

Two Bay of Plenty truffle growers are encouraging landowners with unproductive land to step into the industry.

Matui Hudson and Annette Munday from Ohiwa Black Diamond Truffles have been awarded more than $155,000 through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ sustainable food and fibre futures programme to use over three years.

Hudson and Munday are exploring the export market. They did not know of any significant exports of truffles from New Zealand as the industry did not have enough supply to meet demand.

Since partnering with the ministry the pair held three workshops on truffle growing, and more were planned. ‘‘We have already received orders for around 10,000 inoculated truffle seedlings from several hapū , and we have helped a Kawhia whānau set up a truffiere,’’ said Munday. Hudson hoped Mā ori land trusts would also enter the business.

More than 400 truffieres had been developed in New Zealand but many had not produced any truffles and growers had pulled out the trees that were seeded with truffles, Hudson said.

In inoculation, the roots of young trees are dipped in truffle spores (seeds). They are then kept in a nursery for a year until it could be confirmed that the spores were growing. These trees were then planted.

Each tree can yield 200 grams to one kilogram in well-managed plantations. Truffles can fetch between $2500 and $3500 per kilogram. Set up costs per hectare were between $35,000 and $70,000.

Waikato Farm Data for week ending Friday 24th June 2022

D

D

D

Gordonton Owl Farm Springdale Te Aroha Awamutu Tokoroa

D

D

D

DD4 5 2 3 2 5 4

DairyNZ Comment

Matamata 9 9 8

Te 13.2

7

Matamata 30 30 29 40 32 17

Matamata 1900 2289 2501 2437 2360 2216

Matamata 4.8 5.5 4.8 5.0 4.7 4.7

Matamata 10 42 20

8 25

6

Matamata 0 0 0 0 1.20

0

- 0 0 0 0 0.60

0

Matamata 0 0 0 0 18

0 1 9.58 17 2113 4.8 207 0 0 0 1 9.60 34 2318 5.1 53 0 0 0 The herd is grazing 1/75th of the farm area per day, with 4.8kg/DM/cow/day of supplement being fed. Last year the herd was grazing 1/60th of the farm area per day, with no supplement being fed.