Gourmets pay top dollar for truffle mushrooms, and an increasing number of farms want to cash in. But all the hard work would go to waste without a good sniffer dog.
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00:00 Bravo, bravo.
00:02 Did you dig it out?
00:04 Slowly.
00:05 This is what Michele Filosi and Argo love doing most.
00:09 Stop.
00:10 The two are hunting for truffles.
00:17 The white truffle season is over.
00:19 Now Argo is sniffing out its little brother called Bianchetto.
00:24 You have to be careful not to damage white truffles
00:28 because it would cut the value of the precious fungi in half.
00:32 Bianchetto truffles are much cheaper.
00:35 A kilo costs around 300 euros.
00:38 For a kilo of white truffles, you can get 7, even 10,000 euros.
00:43 They're much rarer.
00:45 Where is it?
00:47 Find it, my love.
00:49 Since he was a child, Michele has forged for truffles
00:52 around his Umbrian hometown of Montelioni d'Orvieto.
00:57 His dog Argo has been at his side for five years.
01:01 A good truffle hunting dog makes for better business,
01:04 but it also comes with unexpected dangers.
01:08 All truffles are expensive, regardless of the type.
01:11 There are some cruel people in the business
01:13 who see truffle hunting as a war.
01:16 They'll stop at nothing.
01:18 They'll hide poisoned meatballs where your car is parked,
01:21 laced with strychnine or snail poison.
01:26 They'll poison your dog over money.
01:31 So he stays undercover,
01:34 which also stops snoops from discovering his secret spots.
01:38 He keeps them all jotted down in a notebook and on his cell phone.
01:42 It's a treasure map that the 38-year-old wouldn't share with anyone.
01:47 Michele sells some of the treasures he finds,
01:49 but the professional chef prepares most of them at Cafรฉ 7.
01:53 He runs the Little Gourmet Truffle Restaurant
01:56 along with his brother, Andrea.
01:59 Did you find anything?
02:02 Of course.
02:04 Look at this bianchetto.
02:08 Where'd you find it?
02:10 Forget it.
02:11 You might be my brother, but I'm not telling you.
02:15 100 kilometers away, they're unlocking truffles' big secrets
02:19 at the headquarters of Orbani Tartuffi's Truffle Empire.
02:23 The company has cornered over 60% of the global truffle market.
02:27 For years, scientists there have been trying to crack the genetic code
02:31 of the precious fungi.
02:33 They, too, guard their company secrets like a treasure.
02:37 We're not allowed to film inside their labs.
02:40 The results of their research are being put into practice
02:43 at their startup, Truffle Land.
02:47 When repotting the plants,
02:49 we bring the roots into contact with truffle spores,
02:52 in this case with the highly prized black truffle.
02:56 We expose the plants to the spores,
02:59 and a year after repotting, we have them checked.
03:03 An independent office confirms whether the roots
03:06 and the truffle spores have developed a symbiosis.
03:09 If they have, we receive a certificate,
03:12 and we can sell that batch.
03:16 Truffle Land currently plants over 100,000 trees a year.
03:20 Areas selected for cultivation are equipped with sensors,
03:23 providing data on soil moisture and regulating water supply.
03:28 Once they've grown, the black truffles just need a dog
03:31 to come and sniff them out.
03:33 That's what Candida and Sally do for a living.
03:39 We collect from 11 in the morning until around 4pm,
03:42 unless there's frost.
03:44 Then we're not allowed to hunt for truffles,
03:46 as it damages the soil.
03:48 These cultivated truffles smell just as strong as the other ones.
03:51 We call them our black diamonds.
03:57 It takes around six years for an area planted like this
04:00 to bear fruit, or rather truffles.
04:04 With this method, the world's largest truffle company
04:07 can guarantee its supply.
04:09 Demand is high, and climate change has led to increased scarcity,
04:12 the head of the family business says.
04:14 Farmers and landowners can also reap the benefits
04:17 of truffle cultivation.
04:20 Truffles yield the most profitable crops in the world.
04:25 One hectare that's being used to grow truffles
04:28 can bring in 100,000 euros each year.
04:35 This black truffle weighs half a kilo and is valued at 600 euros.
04:40 It'll soon be sold to customers in the US.
04:43 We'll most likely sell this truffle to someone in New York.
04:46 There it'll end up in a Michelin-class restaurant,
04:49 where it will be carried from table to table
04:51 and grated onto the dishes.
04:53 It's so beautiful.
04:56 Beautiful, delicious, expensive, and,
04:58 despite our high-tech world,
05:00 still being hunted by the same old symbiotic team,
05:03 humans and dogs.