Urbani together with 100 Umbrian companies
Urbani Tartufi, leading truffle production and transformation company, and the Umbria Region, together with 100 local companies, formally kicked-off Urbani’s truffle supply chain in March 2023. In the previous months, the Umbria Region issued a regional call for the promotion and development of truffle supply chains, recognizing the importance of new tools to support the development of this precious tuber and its cultivation. Urbani Tartufi immediately took part in the project as representative of its own supply chain, rapidly joined by more than 100 agricultural producers.
A first step in this direction had been made in December 2021, when Urbani Tartufi and Intesa Sanpaolo worked to facilitate access to credit for Urbani’s distribution chain companies. The goal of this particular project was a financial aid for the agricultural entrepreneurs who wanted to create new truffle facilities and expansions by joining Truffleland, a company specialized in the production and sale of small mycorrhizal truffle plants and in the creation of truffle facilities and cultivations.
Truffleland, funded by the Urbani family in 2017, aims not only at the production of new truffles, but also at CO2 compensation and lands’ requalification, thus creating new biodiversity. In fact, the company can reproduce the natural process of water, heat and humidity supply, thanks to the mycorrhization of truffle plants that – after being in a greenhouse for several months- can then reach this triple goal, planted in new grounds.
Truffle plantations are the future of this sector, since they can guarantee the continuity of the product nowadays, with climate change still heavily affecting the growth of this precious tuber.
Thanks to the supply chain, 250 hectares of land will be cultivated with truffle, 25% of which with black truffle, and the remaining 75% with summer truffle, By doing so, the estimated production of the facility, from its tenth year, is of 2.000 kg/year of black truffle and 20.000 kg/year of summer truffle.
The project was inspired by the common intent of building a supply chain and investing in truffle cultivation with three goals: guaranteeing the growth of the truffle market, creating a proper traceability chain and helping the environment.
Andrea Pascolini, Urbani Tartufi’s general manager commented: “We are really proud of having been able to realize this beautiful project today. Its kickoff isn’t just an important asset for the Italian economy, but it is also a decisive contribution to the environmental health and the fight against climate change. Thanks to the Umbria Region we were able to give 250 hectares of land to 100 Umbrian companies for truffle cultivation. An unprecedented result allowing Urbani Tartufi and Truffleland to support young Umbrian entrepreneurs, while, at the same time, also helping the whole sector and the environment.”
“The idea of Truffleland was born 12 years ago and it’s now a company” –explains Francesco Loreti Urbani, Truffleland’s Founder- truffle cultivation surely is a challenging dream, but since I was 17 I’ve planted more than a hundred thousand trees all over Italy, many of them in our region, Umbria. Our work of reforestation is going to revitalize the world of truffle and finally create a traceability chain.
We are excited by this project because, as well as producing new truffle, the supply chain also performs a great social function by bringing young people closer to the crafts of the past, creating new jobs, not in factories or assembly lines, but in constant contact with nature. Moreover -in all this talking about the Planet- truffle and its trees are going to design a new “green architecture”, meaning health for the years to come.”
