And that's good. "Prices are around 400-500 euros per kilo, compared to close to 800 euros" last year, per a sidebar article in Food Arts magazine. "Good news for gourmets, even if both experts add that the downside of the boom is the mediocre quality of this years crop and the fact that competition from Spanish and Italian truffles in French markets is also pushing prices down."
The article goes on to discuss the truffle harvest in historical terms. "Since the excessively hot, dry summer of 2003, quantities have dipped further, reaching all time low [harvests] of 12 to 13 tons per year." That's down from 40 to 50 tons at the beginning of the 21st century and 1000 tons recorded at the end of the 19th century!