Truffle fans need to fork out after Italy’s driest October in 60 years

GOURMANDS of the world, despair – the price of Italy’s prized white truffles has nearly doubled because of an unusually dry autumn.

Prices are now as high as €4,500 (£3,986) a kilo, compared with €2,500 a kilo last year.

After a sweltering summer, Italy has experienced its driest October for 60 years, spelling disaster for the tubers, which grow in wild woods and forests.

There are an estimated 200,000 registered truffle hunters, who supply restaurants and shops across the country, using trained dogs to sniff out the tubers – with the best spots kept a closely guarded secret. They say the harvest could be down by 90 per cent in some parts of the country.

Restaurateur Alberto Bettini, of Savigno in the northern region of Emiliaromagna, said he had offered a truffle-based menu for €35 last year, but this year it will cost €55. He is giving his customers a written warning of the expense they will incur. “I felt obliged to do it so that they didn’t think I was trying to rip them off,” he said.