Icecream Industry

The origins of ice cream go way back to the 4th century B.C. In the 13th century, Marco Polo learned of the Chinese method of creating ice and milk mixtures and brought it back to Europe. It became a fashionable treat in Italy and France.

Definition of an ice cream

To call a product "ice cream," two basic requirements must be met:

• The treat must be at least 10-percent milk fat

• Use sugar as the sweetener.

Though there is a potential market for fat-free and sugar-free ice creams, the country's food laws don't permit them yet.

Types of Ice creams

Indian Ice Cream market can be segmented in three different ways, namely on the basis of flavors; on the basis of stock keeping units / packaging and on the basis of consumer segments. On the basis of flavors the market today has a number of flavors like vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, mango, butterscotch a number of fruit flavors, dry fruit flavors traditional flavors like Kesar-Pista, Kaju-Draksh etc. The market is totally dominated by Vanilla, Strawberry and chocolate, which together account for more than 70% of the market followed by butterscotch and other fruit flavors.

Ice –cream industry scenario in India

The ice cream market growth picked up after de-reservation of the sector in 1997. Of the total size of Rs 15-16bn, around 30-32% is in the hands of organized sector valued at Rs 4.9bn, rest all is with the unorganized sector. Among the major players in this industry Hindustan Lever has a market share of around 50%, represented mainly by Kwality Walls brand. Amul with an estimated market share of 35% is rapidly gaining market share and lastly Vadilal is the player in the national market with 8-9% of the market share.

With India's per capita consumption of ice-cream - at 200 ml - against 22 litres in markets like the US, being among the lowest in the world, opportunity for ice-cream marketers is abundant

India's ice cream industry offers a potentially lucrative market for US agricultural and food exporters. Trade liberalization in the country is driving the growth and diversification of the sector, with consumers given a wide range of ice cream flavors such as vanilla, strawberry, butterscotch and chocolate. High tariff rates and inefficient distribution systems continue to hamper the import market, but an increasingly affluent younger generation of consumers will likely boost the ice cream sales.

The frozen treats usually are packaged and sold three ways:

• Cups holding 100 to 150 ml.