Sagra del Tartufo di Alba: B2B merch for truffle houses, sponsors and delegations

Merchandising for the teams around the Sagra del Tartufo di Alba

Programme

Annual international white truffle fair in the historic centre of Alba with tasting rooms, food stalls, the Asta Mondiale del Tartufo auction and the Palazzo Mostre Mostre exhibition

City

Alba, Piedmont, Italy

The Sagra del Tartufo (officially the International White Truffle Fair of Alba) is the truffle fair that fills the historic centre of Alba with tasting rooms, food stalls, the Banca del Vino wine market, the Palazzo Mostre e Congressi show and the Asta Mondiale del Tartufo — the global auction of the season's finest Tuber magnatum alba specimens, with proceeds split across medical research and a part reserved for the truffle-city network. The audience is a mix of residents, Italian and international gastronomy buyers, Michelin-starred chef delegations and corporate sponsors, and the visual identity of the season has to travel across the Langhe — from the truffle-house shops in the Via Maestra, to the Cortile della Maddalena tasting rooms, to the Asta grandstands in the Piazza Risorgimento.

For Alba white truffle vendors, sponsor delegations and corporate teams, the merch cycle is coordinated through the truffle-house hospitality lead, through the sponsor's institutional-relations office and through the delegation's chef or protocol lead. Corp-Merch.IT runs the full production cycle from a Milan hub: brief collection, art adaptation, producer qualification on Piedmontese supply chains (Cherasco leather for truffle-cutting accessories, Alba glass for limited editions, Bra and Asti food sphere, Fabriano paper for programmes and tasting cards, the apparel districts of Turin and Biella for small-batch Made-in-Italy pieces), a physical pre-production sample with a Pantone colour map and a screen-print proof on certified fabric, and a structured proposal within 48 business hours of the kick-off. For programmes that mix truffle-house apparel, hospitality and chef-dinner kits, we split the kit into separately labelled lots per recipient, with separate delivery addresses if a Milan-based sponsor wants a share of the kit collected from its own office.

For sponsoring companies with VAT registration, the invoice goes out in EUR at the standard 22% IVA rate, with reduced 4%, 5% and 10% brackets applied where the product category allows (books and printed paper, in particular, fall under reduced rates). The invoice is routed through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the buyer's codice destinatario or PEC address. For international buyers inside the EU we operate the reverse charge under Article 196 of the VAT Directive; for buyers outside the EU we can issue invoices ex-VAT or with VAT refund support through the Italian VAT-refund portal.

Production and venue logistics toward Alba

Before production begins, artwork, per-truffle-house quantities, packaging and the named on-site recipient must be locked. The exact booth and the sponsor table addresses finalise only against the current municipal layout close to the fair — Alba's historic centre and the Cortile della Maddalena are pedestrian-only during the fair week and on Asta evening, and cannot be used as parcel-reception addresses during the fair without prior notice from the Comune di Alba and the fair organising committee. The town's ZTL (limited traffic zone) and the Langhe road network condition courier access in the centro storico, and most truffle-houses combine a warehouse on the ring road with a staging hotel in the Langhe hills and a piazza pickup on the afternoon of the tasting. The truffle-house hospitality lead coordinates the loading slot the day before the Asta Mondiale del Tartufo.

For an Alba programme routed from Milan, deliveries are consolidated at the hub and dispatched to the staging area in the Langhe hills (Barolo, La Morra, Cherasco, Bra) with a 24–48 hour window via BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express, and on appointment for truffle-house warehouses and ZTL addresses. For transfer into the historic centre we work with local ZTL-permitted couriers licensed by the Comune di Alba. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with phone pre-notice and, on request, on-site set-up at the sponsor table by our staff. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a sustainability data sheet per PO with Scope 3 CO₂e estimates per GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Lombardy–Piedmont lane, including the Cherasco–Milan–Alba, Asti–Milan–Alba and Biella–Milan–Alba production routes.

All Italian B2B orders are invoiced in EUR at the standard 22% IVA rate (with reduced 4%, 5% and 10% rates where applicable by product category) and routed through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the buyer's codice destinatario or PEC address. Corp-Merch.IT is a registered Italian VAT operator, listed on VIES for intra-EU operations, and handles reverse charge, split payment and pubblica-amministrazione self-invoicing under current Italian rules.

Planning timeline

1. 10–12 weeks out: lock product list, per-truffle-house quantities and decoration methods, especially for Cherasco leather limited editions and Asta-tier gifts.
2. 6–8 weeks out: approve a physical or pre-production sample for textiles, Fabriano paper goods and Cherasco leather accessories.
3. 3–4 weeks out: finish production, AQL 2.5 quality control and per-recipient labelling.
4. Final week: reconfirm the delivery calendar for each truffle-house, the sponsor table warehouse and any partner-dinner venues.

Certifications, quality and lot traceability

For Alba white truffle vendors, sponsor delegations and corporate teams presenting a Sagra del Tartufo merch programme, coherence between visual identity and raw materials is integral to the offering. We work with Italian producers operating under ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management) and SA8000 or equivalent for social responsibility, and holding the main product certifications required by the segment: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 on skin-contact textiles (cotton for T-shirts and aprons, Como silk for pocket squares), GOTS on organic cotton, GRS on recycled polyester, FSC on paper and packaging (programmes, labels, tasting cards), EU Ecolabel on a range of textile and stationery items.

For Cherasco leather the producer keeps the Italian origin certificate and uses vegetable-tanned leather from the Piedmontese tanning district with REACH compliance and an updated SVHC declaration. For Alba glass the producer holds the Italian origin certificate and can attach a conformity declaration for every object. For traditional Fabriano paper the producer holds the Marchio Fabriano certification and uses cotton fibre from European spinning mills with FSC-certified supply. On the packaging side, paper-product manufacturers offer FSC or PEFC options and, on request, plastic-free with vegetable-based inks.

For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024) we integrate into the PO a sustainability data sheet with Scope 3 CO₂e estimate per GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain, broken down by material (cotton, silk, leather, paper, glass) and by logistics lane (Cherasco–Milan–Alba, Asti–Milan–Alba, Biella–Milan–Alba, Torino–Milan–Alba), plus ESRS E1 (Climate Change), E5 (Resource Use) and S2 (Workers in the Value Chain) references for the client's sustainability balance sheet. On request we also include packaging-waste reporting submitted to CONAI for post-consumer material traceability.