00:00In the rich fields of WA's south coast, fungi farming is taking root.
00:07So that's the truffle growing around the root.
00:10The truffle season in Australia runs over a few short weeks in winter.
00:14A team of farmers and international scientists is hoping to expand the season into spring and summer.
00:20What we wanted to do is expand the types of truffle species so we can harvest in different seasons.
00:26New methods and technology are under the microscope.
00:29We test every single piece of biology that goes onto those seedlings.
00:33We make sure there's no pathogenic fungus on it so we've got a clean tree.
00:37It's inoculated already with the truffle species we want and not one that we don't want.
00:42And then we bring it out here and transplant it.
00:44Australia is the fourth largest truffle producing country in the world with more than 11 tonnes of exports last year.
00:50Industry hoping new species will meet a global demand.
00:54Japanese love them. In Europe Germans love them.
00:58The places that they're not growing are the ones that consume more of them.
01:01So where we're going to have a huge success is the Asian markets.
01:04Drought conditions in big truffle producing nations like Italy, France and Spain have seen their harvests stalled.
01:11But here on the south west coast production is booming.
01:14Farmers and scientists are hopeful the methods being tested here will go some way towards drought proofing Aussie growers.
01:20Fungus needs water. 85% of the actual truffle itself is water.
01:26Hopefully we're never going to go into the same problem that they're having in Europe.
01:29Local scientists are leading with their noses, helped along with some tips from their European counterparts.
01:35People that we're working with overseas, they have actually developed these species for cultivation in Europe.
01:42So they're already ahead of where we would have been if we didn't have the input.
01:47A scientific approach to a culinary classic.
01:50.
Comments