Quality Assurance of the Australian Truffle Industry

Australian truffle growing in Australia is small and at the early stages of development. The industry produced approximately 1,500 kilograms in 2009 with a wholesale price of between $1500 and $2,000 / kilogram. A high proportion of growers operate on a small scale. As well as increasing area being planted, truffle production is increasing approximately 40 percent each year from existing planted areas to meet the growth in local and overseas demand. Commensurate with this growth is the pressure for the industry to develop its supply chain relationships and associated quality assurance (QA). This paper explores the QA assurance approaches suited to the truffle industry and reports industry stakeholder responses toward the implementation of such QA schemes. 110 industry members of the Australian Truffle Growers Association were invited to participate in the survey with 29 responding (26 percent). 20 of these agreed that the overall benefits to their business obtained from introducing a QA scheme would outweigh its costs. It was also generally perceived that QA would ensure continuous improvement and advance the professionalism of the industry. The study involved the design of a user-friendly online questionnaire made accessible to the member group only.