Tuber Tale
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Australia is the forty-second largest potato producer in the world. We are the fourth largest producer of the tuber melanosporum truffle, behind Spain, France and Italy.
Details
According to FAOSTAT data currently only available for 2022, the ten highest potato producers were
Australia comes in at forty-second with 1.1 million tonnes.
The figure includes mushroom production if we use FAOSTAT data for truffles.
Australia comes in eighteenth with 50 thousand tonnes.
The Australian Truffle Industry Association quotes Australia as the fourth largest producer of the Perigord black truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) globally, behind Spain, France and Italy. Adding to the complications of FASOSTAT reporting, including mushrooms, there is also concern that the figures on truffle production may not be accurate. Truffle production figures include the harvesting in the wild of truffles in European countries. Some hunters boast of their finds, while others prefer to protect their locations and keep yield information to themselves. They often do not even keep records. There are also reports from Spain that the yields of desired European truffle varieties are being infiltrated by the Chinese native truffle tuber Indicum. Tuber Indicum is incredibly similar to tuber melanosporum, so it takes a trained eye or cooking to determine if it is not. Tuber indicum is now banned in both Italy and Australia.
I have combed the internet, but the data is very patchy. Some countries only quote export dollars for total truffle production, and given the cost difference between truffle varieties, it is impossible to equate to tonnes.
The information below has been created using multiple sources. It covers varieties other than Tuber Melanosporum, hence China's placement.
