Alba (Italy) (AFP) – A white truffle weighing 850 grams was sold for 100,000 euros on Sunday to a buyer from Hong Kong, during the 27th world auction organized in Alba, near Turin, in Piedmont (north), AFP noted.
Published on: 08/11/2026 - 16:08Modified on: 08/11/2026 - 16:55
The second lot, a 300 gram truffle, was sold the first time for 12,000 euros, then the buyer having decided not to take it, it was sold for 14,000 euros the second time to a local entrepreneur.
"This year the truffle suffered a little from the drought. At the moment, thanks to the last rains, it seems that the season is starting again and we therefore hope that the end of the year will be more favorable for the truffles. For the moment we have some very beautiful ones", Roberto Bodrito, regional president of Enoteca Piemonte Cavour, told AFP-TV.
“Never before has this auction been so international in character: four new locations, nine interconnected cities… A truly global sale, like never before,” he added.
These auctions expand each year to an increasing number of countries and the 27th edition welcomed Brasilia, London, Macau and Vilnius, in addition to sites that regularly participate such as Hong Kong, Bangkok or Vienna.
The sums raised during these sales always go to charities, in Italy and abroad, and since the first sale, in 1999, around 7.2 million euros have financed a hospital in Africa, the social reintegration of young drug addicts or the education of children in the favelas.
In 2025, 502,000 euros were raised during this auction, with a white truffle weighing 1,009 grams sold for 110,000 euros to a buyer from Hong Kong.
Sought after by gourmets and starred chefs around the world, the Alba white truffle, the most prestigious in the world, is an underground mushroom that grows in symbiosis with certain trees by attaching to their roots.
Tuber magnatum Pico, the scientific name for the white truffle, grows in soils that must remain cool and humid both in the germination phase and in the maturation phase.
© 2026 AFP
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