30 kg of truffles offered during the second festival in Sète

Truffle sellers have set up on rue Gambetta. Free Midi – PHILIPPE MALRIC

Le prix de vente était fixé à 120 € les 100 grammes. Midi Libre – PHILIPPE MALRIC

Antoine Yonis aimerait plus de soutien. Midi Libre – PHILIPPE MALRIC

La rue Gambetta a abrité dimanche 21 janvier la deuxième fête de la truffe à Sète.

Thirty kilograms of truffles at 120 € the 100 grams were offered by around ten producers to the gastronomes of Sète on Sunday January 21 on the occasion of the second truffle festival of the Singular Island.

Local producers, but not only

Aligned on rue Gambetta, the sellers – originally from Hérault, Aveyron but also from the Valensole plateau – put their odoriferous product on sale until early afternoon. At that point there wasn't much left to grate on top of an omelette. Which delighted Antoine Yoris, the president of the Truffle association in Occitanie.

The sector has been abandoned

Still, this producer from Plaissan is a bit of a jerk when we talk about production. "At the end of the 19th century in Hérault, we produced 180 tonnes of truffles in Hérault alone. Last year, nationally, 15 tonnes were produced. The sector has been completely abandoned." And the voluble president regrets the importation of Spanish truffles to compensate.

The department spoiled by Dame Nature

"We wrote to the minister and to all the communities of municipalities to ask them to support us. We are starting to help young people settle in, we are structuring ourselves. We may even launch a special diploma at the Gignac agricultural high school. In Hérault, Mother Nature has given us exceptional soil for truffles. We have to get started", says Antoine Yoris. The gourmets applaud with both hands.

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