Australia could be on the verge of a truffle boom, with producers predicting the country has the potential to become the world's largest producer of the fungus delicacy.

Australia is currently the fourth largest truffle producer after France, Italy and Spain.

But some truffle producers say Australia could leapfrog the European nations within a decade.

A festival in Melbourne this weekend will stage truffle hunts and feature truffle chefs to showcase the delights of the delicacy, which can sell for thousands of dollars per kilo.

"We're catching up pretty fast, production is increasing by 20 to 25 per cent every year," Truffle Melbourne festival director Nigel Wood says.

"We're already looking like we might harvest eight, if not nine, tonnes this year. Even France just did 12 tonnes last year.

"With that annual increase and some big truffieres [truffle fields] being planted six, seven or eight years ago ... now coming on stream, it's even possible Australia could be the number one truffle producer within the decade."

The industry's export capability is around $60 million, Mr Wood said.

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But there is also the importance of culinary tourism to consider.

"There are a lot of boutique-type growers with maybe 1,000 trees, so it's not just the value of truffle that's produced and grown. It's also the culinary tourism importance of the industry. In many ways, I think we can follow the trajectory of some of the best vineyards around the country."

Australian truffle farming is also a little safer than its European counterpart.

"I don't need to sit in my stone hut with my loaded shotgun for fear of people jumping over the fence and coming and pinching my truffles just yet, but the day may come," Mr Wood said.

Hunting for truffles a complex business

Stuart Dunbar, from Yarra Valley Truffles, grows English and evergreen oaks and hazelnut trees, and hunts for truffles with his dog Bear.

His plantings could be yielding up to 10 kilograms of truffles by 2016.

It is a meticulous job, because the truffles need to be checked for maturity and insect damage, then covered with a mound of earth until they are ready to harvest.

No-one is certain what exactly makes Australian soil so good for growing truffles, despite there being a number of successful truffieres in Victoria and Western Australia.

"They're in these red volcanic soils, which is by no means the type of soil that they've used traditionally," Mr Dunbar said.

"The natural environment is a limestone-based soil, very, very high PH."

Mr Dunbar says you can tell a great truffle by its aroma, which he describes as being like music, going from a single note to a complex symphony over 10 days.

"You take one whiff and you just bury your nose beside the truffle and go... this is it, this is a great truffle," he said.

His job is made all the more difficult by wet weather, which washes the aroma back into the soil.

"We're going to have truffles that smell divine a few days earlier, and there'll be no discernible aroma after a couple of inches of rain overnight," Mr Dunbar said.

The biggest truffle he has found was a 700 gram "beauty", but it falls short of a 1.17 kg specimen grown in NSW last month.

"That's an absolute beauty, I'm wondering how long it'll take me to beat that record," Mr Dunbar said.

"I believe it was sold for $2,500 to a local restaurant."

He said he prefers to eat truffles in the sous-vide style, where they are cooked in sealed plastic bags in boiling water or steam.

Although truffles have become a staple of European fare, Mr Dunbar thinks the fungus is yet to have its culinary coming of age in Australia.

"I've noticed a real groundswell in the awareness of truffle," he said.

"When I first started finding my ripe truffles, if you talked to people about truffle they'd say 'Oh what, the chocolates?'.

"Now maybe two in 10 is 'Yes, I've tried a truffle, it's lovely'."