Italian gelato is European market leader

Italian cuisine is revered all across the globe, with people often thinking of pizza and pasta. However, Italians also have an ironclad reputation when it comes to ice cream. This is also reflected in sales, as Italians are the European market leader.

Mainly for its own country

Italians manufactured 595 million liters of ice cream last year, which is 19 % of the entire European production. The entire Italian ice cream industry generated a 1.4 billion euro turnover last year. Germany is second, with 515 million liters, France third with 454 million liters.

The Italians are also avid ice cream consumers: there are more than 19,000 ice cream parlours and more are added every year, mostly small family businesses. Italians eat more than 100 ice cream scoops a year, on average. Considering the fact Southern Europe has been in a heat wave, consumption will most likely not go down for several months.

This does have a detrimental effect on the export of Italian ice cream though, as it is only fifth when it comes to ice cream export.