White truffles are displayed after being sold for 75,000 euros to a buyer from Hong Kong during the World Alba White Truffles Auction at the Grinzane Cavour castle near Alba, northwestern Italy, on November 12, 2017. Photo: AFP

Alba, Italy - A lot  of around 850 grammes (1.9 pounds) of white truffles was sold for 75,000 euros ($87,500) in a top Italian auction on Sunday.

The buyer  from Hong Kong placed their winning bid via satellite at the World Alba  White Truffles Auction at the Grinzane Cavour castle in Piedmont,  northwestern Italy.

Isabelle Gianicolo of the National Truffle  Study Centre noted that the auction price was "symbolic" and did not  necessarily reflect the true market price, since the proceeds were  donated to charitable causes.

Nevertheless, dry conditions this  year had sent the market price soaring to 6,000 euros per kilogramme  from 3,000-4,000 euros last year, she told AFP.

A recent drought influenced the quantity, "but not the quality of the truffles," Gianicolo said

In 2007, Chinese tycoon Stanley Ho bid $330,000 on a 1.5kg white truffle at an auction in Macau.  An Italian truffle hunter spent more than an hour digging down 80cm (2.6ft) to find the largest truffle unearthed in half a century, at a countryside spot near Pisa. Pictured above, Angela Leong, wife of Stanley Ho, holds the pricety truffle. Photo: Reuters

Alba, Italy - A lot of around 850 grammes (1.9 pounds) of white truffles was sold for 75,000 euros ($87,500) in a top Italian auction on Sunday.

The buyer from Hong Kong placed their winning bid via satellite at the World Alba White Truffles Auction at the Grinzane Cavour castle in Piedmont, northwestern Italy.

Isabelle Gianicolo of the National Truffle Study Centre noted that the auction price was "symbolic" and did not necessarily reflect the true market price, since the proceeds were donated to charitable causes.

Nevertheless, dry conditions this year had sent the market price soaring to 6,000 euros per kilogramme from 3,000-4,000 euros last year, she told AFP.

A recent drought influenced the quantity, "but not the quality of the truffles," Gianicolo said.

"The situation has recently improved slightly, but it's clear that it's not going to be a great year. There certainly aren't going to be very large truffles up for auction, even if they're still very good truffles," she said.

Alba has hosted Italy's most famous white truffle market, during which the auction is held, for close to 90 years.