My latest agriculture discovery is in Europe…
But it’s not a vineyard.
It’s a truffle plantation.
What’s a truffle?
Well, I’m not growing chocolate truffles; those treats were actually named so because they look like real truffles…
And Europeans—along with chefs and food lovers worldwide—love real truffles.
The kind of truffles I’m talking about are fungi that grow underground, beneath large trees like oak or beech. Truffle shavings, flakes, oils, etc. are added to foods to give a distinct flavor… one so unique and tasty that culinary circles refer to these nuggets as the “diamonds of the kitchen.”
Indeed, due to their popularity and demand, truffles are the most expensive food in the world. The good news for us is that’s not going to change any time soon.
The Truffle Industry Is Still Suffering From World War I
Historically, farmers went into forests to hunt truffles with pigs. The pigs could smell when the truffles were ripe and would literally root them out of the ground.
Today, farmers use trained dogs to hunt for truffles. They’re cheaper to maintain… and they don’t eat the truffles after they find them.
Regardless, thanks to a decades-long drought in the Mediterranean Basin, wild truffles are harder and harder to find. Hence the creation of truffle plantations.
In fact, truffle plantations started as early as 1808 in France. Production peaked by the early 1900s. World War I devastated these efforts. It meant the loss of both the trained labor force and generations of truffle-growing knowledge.
New plantations have only really started in earnest in the last 30 years… and truffle production hasn’t returned yet to the volumes produced at the beginning of last century.
Of course, you can’t just plant trees in the ground and expect to find truffles growing on the roots. You need specific trees for specific truffles… and you need the spores.
Truffles require a network of spores before they’ll start producing in volume. That’s where the science comes in. The plantation developer I’ve found is working with a lab that has mapped the DNA of the truffles they grow. That knowledge allows them to confirm that the truffles they are using to create the spores for mixing into the roots of the trees are, in fact, the truffles they want to grow.
To ensure the quality and purity of the plantations, the lab checks every single truffle this developer uses.
Along with that quality-control step, the plantation manager uses other high-tech, beyond state-of-the-art farm-management tools to be able to produce more truffles faster.
Truffle Demand Earns You Up To 19% A Year (For 30 years)
Despite renewed efforts aided by modern science, truffle production can’t keep up with demand.
In fact, estimated demand is at least 10 to 20 times greater than production for the type of truffle we’re investing in: the black Périgord truffle.
That’s one reason this opportunity caught my attention.
Another is the up to 19% annualized returns projected by the plantation developer over the 30-year investment cycle. Your return is based on the number of trees you purchase… the more trees, the higher the return.
In the first few years, cash flow is low as the spores need time to multiply before large quantities of truffles can be produced. That changes quickly as time goes on:
| Annual Income Based On Trees Purchased | 100 Trees | 200 Trees | 500 Trees |
| Year 5 | US$1,746 | US$3,494 | US$8,763 |
| Year 10 | US$18,126 | US$36,252 | US$90,630 |
| Year 15 | US$25,430 | US$51,250 | US$134,950 |
| Year 20 | US$27,858 | US$56,105 | US$147,088 |
| Year 21-30 | US$27,858 | US$56,105 | US$147,088 |
| TOTAL | US$601,020 | US$1,210,231 | US$3,168,902 |
Regardless of the number of trees you buy, you’ll make your money back around year 10. Altogether you’re looking at 27 consecutive years of cash flow.
As you can see in the figures above, the plantation manager has decided not to increase projections for the final decade of returns. However, given inflation and the dwindling supply of wild-grown truffles, it’s likely those projections will prove very conservative.
You legally own the trees and the harvest rights. The plantation manager manages them for you, along with truffle production, working closely with the scientists back in the lab to maximize production and quality controls.
I’ve invested in plenty of these trees myself, and I encourage you to consider if this exciting new agricultural offering makes sense for your portfolio, as well.
Go here now for more information on what I believe is one of the most exciting agricultural opportunities I’ve unearthed in a long while.
Lief Simon
