March 18, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Israeli company Ilsar announced it has raised $5 million in funding led by AP Partners to commercialize rare black winter truffles on the international market. 

Almost universally considered a luxury, challenging to cultivate to the point of frustration, and traditionally only found during the winter in France, Italy, or Spain, the perigold black winter truffle (which is being produced by Ilsar), along with the Alba white truffle, are the two most expensive types of truffles in the world, selling at the wholesale level between $1,200 and $2,000 per kilogram.

However, the natural growing habitat and survival of the black winter truffle are under pressure due to climate change, over-harvesting, urbanization, forest fires, and invasive contaminant fungus mushrooms. This has resulted in fewer available high-quality truffles on the market.

Many have attempted to commercially cultivate truffles only to be thwarted in the end. Only 15 percent of the world’s plantations have been successful in getting to harvest – and that’s after a minimum of five-to-eight years of cultivating, and 10 years to reach optimum yields. 

Over the past century in France (the world’s top truffle consumer), yearly supply has fallen from 1,000 tons to only 30 toms, while demand continues to soar – especially recently, which has resulted in prices skyrocketing by as much as a thousandfold to what we see today.

As challenging as truffle production apparently is, Ilsar says it has used new technologies to breach the hurdles, and is working to establish Israel as a new international provider of the delicacy.

Founded in 2011 by chairman Yoel Givol, CEO Nimrod Tabenkin, and CTO Tal Monchase, Ilsar and its team of 10 used Big Data to tag each seedling with a compendium of information: its spore source, seed source, genetic data, lab results, and proper care directives.

Then the company developed a process similar to blockchain that co-founder Nimrod Tabenkin told Geektime, “…allows growers to monitor and verify the quality of the micro seedling from a spore, throughout the entire growth cycle, and picking, packing, and shipping processes.”

Complying with what it calls its Ilsar Standard of Excellence (ISE) – a set of rigorous tests and standards that help track, monitor, and support the truffle life cycle throughout the entire process – Ilsar follows each inoculated tree-plant from seed to harvest, and every truffle from spore to table, according to its website. 

Over the past eight years in Israeli’s Golan Heights, Ilsar has developed a complex methodology beginning at its laboratory, and then at its greenhouse, before its seedlings are transferred to plantations that simulate the truffles’ natural growing habitat.

Currently, the company is contracted with active plantations covering 117.5 acres, with a target to expand to 167.5 acres by the end of this year, and 2,500 acres over the next 10 to 12 years with maximum production capacity of 36 tons per year.

With its process in-hand, and a goal of becoming a major player in the international truffle market, Ilsar is now looking toward commercializing its truffles on international markets to fill the gap in supply and meet climbing demand, which is forecast to increase at a CAGR of 19 percent.  

“This latest investment round will allow the company to continue to realize its vision and to found advanced truffles agriculture, rich in know-how in partnership with local farmers,” said Tabenkin. “The company will continue to invest in applied research and breakthrough, innovative agricultural technologies with the aim of becoming a major [player] in the world truffles market throughout the entire value chain.”

“At the same time,” continued Tabenkin, “…this investment will serve for research into new areas and thus to leverage the existing knowhow and development infrastructure to other areas in the wonderful world of truffles.”

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.