He bought a 1,300-gram truffle found near Belgrade paid €5,000, priced it at $415,000 in Istria!

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There are more and more foragers for precious truffles in Serbia, and due to the lack of regulations governing this business, everything is done in the gray zone, which leads to conflicts between those involved.

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We witnessed a recent such incident when two brothers lost their lives because they allegedly entered the truffle territory of another two brothers, and attacked them. According to experienced truffle foragers this work is usually done in secret, due to the cost-effectiveness because large pieces of truffles can cost several (tens) of thousands of euros, due to the hiding of locations, because anyone can look for truffles anywhere. And what few people know is that there is a ban on collecting these mushrooms at a certain time of the year.

In addition, truffle growers say that the state does not listen to them and ask why Serbia isn't makig a brand out of its truffles. They are especially affected when famous chefs come from abroad and take truffles from here to later sell or use them in other countries.

One of people involved in the trade, a guest on TV Prva, gave the example of the famous Istrian truffle actually being ours.

"He buys truffles here, and takes them away. That’s hundreds of kilograms of truffles, the question is do you get them out of the country?," Petrovic asks and states that experienced foragers growers from other countries to collect the precious mushrooms here.

"The famous Zigante (restaurant owner), he lived in the former Yugoslavia, I met him a few years ago when he was buying truffles in Jagodina," he says and continues: "He bought a 1,300-gram truffle, which was found near Belgrade. He bought it for 5,000 euros, and it was priced at 415,000 dollars in his restaurant in Livade (Istria)," he says and points out that there had still been a wax mark on it.

Petrovic does not hide that he himself was often in danger due to the unregulated way of foraging, that he tried to avoid conflicts, because it often doesn't make any difference whether someone's plot with truffles is private or state-owned.

"There were also guns," he says.

He points out that Serbia is at least 20 years behind, when it comes to truffles.

(Telegraf Biznis)