This Europe: Truffle hunters smell danger in demand for cheaper imports

When is a truffle not a truffle? When it is a Chinese truffle, according to European producers.

This is the height of the European truffle season. Truffle hunters and their dogs are scouring scrubland in France, Italy and Spain for the precious underground fungi that fetch €250 (£170) a pound.

There is no sign of any slackening of prices or consumer demand. But the association of European producers – the European Tuber Group, based in Paris – sees a long-term menace from across the world. The European market, it claims, is being invaded by cheap, tasteless truffles from China, which sell for as little as €10 a pound.

A true connoisseur cannot mistake the imports for the Tuber melanosporum or "black diamond" of the Périgord, harvested in Europe from November to March, which has the intoxicating smell of a newly-mown lawn and the kaleidoscope of tastes of a great wine. But they are much in demand from some restaurants and food manufacturers who can boast that their meals and products are "truffé" (made with truffles), for a twentieth of the cost.

The European Tuber Group fears the Chinese truffles will ruin the market by convincing consumers that truffles are overrated and a waste of money. "The mediocre truffle is chasing out the good," it says. EU imports from China have doubled since the winter of 1999-2000 and now total 18.8 tonnes – almost the equivalent of France's production in a poor year.

The tuber group wants the European Commission to impose import duties or quotas on the Chinese kind, which come from several other species. The European truffle producers also want new regulations to force restaurants or food firms to state clearly what kind of truffles they are using.