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We were one of the first who exported Chinese fresh
truffle seriously in 1997 and since then, we' ve become one
of the largest fresh truffle suppliers in China.
We differentiate ourselves from other Chinese state-owned
import/export companies, small-size truffle trading companies
and truffle dealers by one point: we may well be the only
company in China which can do the truffle picking, processing
(cleaning, washing, grading, drying and warehousing) and exporting
all by ourselves.
There are 200 farmers who ONLY pick the fresh truffle
for us, including 40 farmers living in remote Tibetan mountainous
areas who pick the Tuber Himalayensis, a fresh black truffle
which is very similar to Tuber Melanosporum. All the farmers
are properly trained and most of them have worked for us for
more than 3 years. One or two quality control men who understand
our quality standard are stationed in every collection point.
With 200 farmers only working for us, our full operation capacity
for summer white truffle is 15 tons, winter black truffle
(including 3 tons of Tuber himalayensis) is 20 tons. Of course,
we still outsource the truffle from other farmers if it's
beyond our capacity to meet the much larger orders - in this
case, we send for our most experienced QA men to buy the best
truffles from the farmers.
The reasons for establishing our own picking group of farmers
are:
1) Pick the right truffle our customers ask for.
we can tell the farmers what is exactly we
want BEFORE they go to harvest the truffles. If they are not
instructed on picking the right truffles before they go deep
in the mountain, farmers usually pick all the truffles they
can find, which includes very small and premature ones. Farmers
will tell you to "take all" or "take none".
In most cases, most companies will have to take all at the
cost of the quality because truffle is still a product of
which the demand is much greater than the supply.
2) Keep the freshness of the truffle
Speaking from experience, the shelf life
for white truffle is 4-7 days, black truffle 10-12 days. If
stocked in a 2-5 centigrade environment, the shelf life can
be extended to two weeks for white truffle, 4-5 weeks for
black truffle. After the shelf life, the truffle will become
soft and mashed, almost no fragrance. Therefore, it's very
important to keep the fresh truffle in 2-5 centigrade
environment
in a timely manner.
Bad Truffle
Our farmers submit the truffles to the collection
points and usually, the fresh truffles will be transported
to our fridge room within three days. Other farmers will heap
the truffle in their backyards with no necessary stocking
facilities and sell to the dealers on a 50 kg basis - for
this, it's not surprising that some of the truffles they sell
are probably one or two months old.
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