Puzzle of prized white truffle finally yields to science

No one has been able to farm the rare, expensive fungus on a commercial scale - until now

They emit intense aromas of garlic and fermented cheese, and are so rare that they can fetch up to 9,000 a kilogram. Now, the puzzle that has confounded experts for more than half a century, of how to cultivate the elusive white truffle on a commercial scale, appears to have been solved.

This week, scientists from France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), will reveal that, at a secret location in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France, they have cultivated 26 white truffles.