Spain nurtures its truffle trade - for the French

Sarrion, Spain

ON Saturday nights, prospective buyers gather on the outskirts of this small village, in the darkness of a parking lot next to a semi-abandoned railway station. Using flashlights, they inspect the offerings local farmers have piled in the trunks of their vehicles, then haggle over price.

It might seem an unusually clandestine way to sell produce. Then again, this market is for one of the world's most prized foodstuffs, the black truffle. But perhaps more surprising is that a truffle trade would be thriving here, in the arid and thinly populated hills of east-central Spain.