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.

周六晚間，潛在買家在這座小村莊郊外半廢棄火車站旁一處黑暗的停車場聚集。他們先用手電筒檢視當地農民堆在汽車行李廂內的產品，然後討價還價。

這種農產品販賣方式可能顯得異常祕密。再說，這市場賣的還是世上最珍貴的食材之一：黑松露。

But perhaps more surprising is that a truffle trade would be thriving here, in the arid and thinly populated hills of east-central Spain.

The black truffle, with its pungent aroma, is, after all, a mainstay of French gastronomy. Spaniards barely eat them. Scientifically known as the Tuber melanosporum, it is even commonly known as the Perigord truffle, after the French region that long led in its production.

而或許更令人驚訝的是，松露交易竟會在此處如此興盛，因該地位於西班牙中部東面乾燥且人煙稀少的丘陵區。

畢竟，香氣撲鼻的黑松露是法國美食的中流砥柱。西班牙人幾乎不吃。甚且，黑松露學名雖叫黑孢塊菌，卻以佩里哥松露之名而更為人知，因為位於法國的該地區素為首要產地。

But France's truffle output has collapsed over the past century, through wars and industrialization that encouraged farmers to switch to crops with shorter production cycles. Changes in the climate — severe droughts and heat waves — have also hurt production recently.

Last year, France produced 56 metric tons of truffles, compared with a peak of 1,040 tons in 1904, according to historical data from the French federation of truffle growers.

但法國過去百年間松露產量已經崩跌，戰爭與工業化進程鼓勵農民改種生產周期較短的作物。氣候變遷如大旱與熱浪最近也對生產造成傷害。

法國松露農聯盟的歷年數據顯示，相較於1904年高峰時的1040噸，法國去年僅生產56公噸松露。

At the same time, Spain's production has been growing rapidly — to about 45 tons a year.

Luckily for the French, and others, however, Spanish cuisine rarely uses the truffle. In fact, about 95 percent of what Spain produces is exported to France and other markets — even if some of it gets relabeled as Perigord truffle.

同時，西班牙的產量一直快速成長，已來到每年約45萬噸。

不過，法國跟其他國家的愛好者還算運氣不錯，西班牙料理很少用松露。事實上，西班牙所產松露約95%輸往法國或其他市場，雖然有一部分改標為佩里哥松露。

"Spain is now producing what is missing in France," said Eric Bienvenu, a French truffle broker, who buys truffles from farmers to supply French restaurants.

The quality of the Spanish black truffle, he argued, is "at least as good" as that grown in France, "even if most French will of course tell you that theirs are better."

法國松露中間商艾希克．畢恩維奴畢恩維奴向農民購買松露供應給法國餐廳，他說：「西班牙正在生產法國缺少的東西。」。

他認為，西班牙黑松露品質與法國所種的「至少一樣好，即便大多數法國人一定會告訴你他們的比較好。」