Soggy summer yields bumper British truffle harvest

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Those in the truffle business can’t believe their luck.

This year’s wet weather has produced a bumper crop.

Truffle harvests have doubled year on year since 2005 thanks to our rainy summers and experts believe this year’s harvest will be even bigger.

Fungus gold: Truffles can command prices of up to £2,500 a kilogram

Nigel Hadden-Paton, who runs Truffle UK Ltd, Britain’s first commercial truffle-growing company, said: ‘The wet weather has been a godsend for us, and it’s very nearly time to harvest our native British summer truffle.

‘The ones we have seen so far this year bubbling to the surface are looking bigger and they are in greater number.

‘We harvested 77-88lbs in 2005, 176lbs in 2006 and an amazing 396lbs in 2007 but we expect to exceed that this year.’

Truffles can command prices of up to £2,500 a kilogram for the most highly prized specimens.

However another type of fungus, sudden oak death disease, is also booming. It poses the biggest threat to rhododendrons and viburnums.