They are enabled to practise by regions, provinces, mountain communities and municipalities. You pay a national and a local tax to operate, but not everywhere
The number of truffle hunters in Italy
In Italy, today, there are over 70,000 professionally qualified truffle gatherers from regions, provinces, mountain communities and municipalities. There has been a strong increase from the 1980s up to today, especially along the central-northern Apennines and in the foothills of the central-eastern Alps.
In some regions, the truffle hunter must pay every year to carry out his truffle hunting activity on the national soil: a part of the payment is represented by the national tax, with the card which is usually valid for five years, but which in Emilia Romagna reaches six years and in Lombardy even 10; the second part of the payment is an annual local concession fee. In Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Lombardy and the Autonomous Province of Trento this concession fee has been abolished, in Campania you pay up to 185.92 euros.
Penalties for those who fail
Be careful not to go wrong by illegally collecting truffles. In fact, those without an eligibility card get to pay a hefty fine: if it’s in Molise we reach 250 euros, in Abruzzo we even go up to 6 thousand euros. Only two Italian regions, on the other hand, have adapted their legislation on the unauthorised elimination of truffle-producing plants: in Abruzzo the fine ranges from 100 to 700 euros per plant, in Emilia Romagna between 516 and 1,549 euros.
The marketing of fresh truffles outside the permitted period costs a minimum of 400 euros in Molise and a maximum of 20 thousand euros in the Marche. If it is posted without the authorization of the competent office, the Umbria Region provides for a minimum fine of 3 euros up to a maximum of 26 for each table not affixed to a suitable post, in Piedmont it ranges from 516 to 5,170 euros.
Finally, we mention the fine for failure to comply with the specifications for the production of mycorrhizal plants: in Emilia Romagna it ranges from one thousand to 6 thousand euros, in Umbria for each plant marketed, without indications, it ranges from 10 to 103 euros per plant.
