Take-home ice cream market in the European Economic Area (EEA)

In 2014, the EEA ice cream market had an estimated value of around EUR 9 billion.
In 2014, the EEA ice cream market had an estimated value of around EUR 9 billion.

•    France
France is one of the largest ice cream markets in the EEA, with a total industrial ice cream value of EUR 1369 million in 2015. Approximately 75% of the ice cream in France is sold through the retail channel in the take-home market. 72% of the take-home ice cream corresponds to branded ice cream sales, whereas private label accounts for the remaining 28%.
France is a growing market, with an average annual growth rate of 2% and the consumption per capita is estimated at 5.6 liters with 3.9 liters in the take-home market.


•    Italy
Italy is also one of the largest ice cream markets in the EEA, with a total industrial ice cream value of EUR 1776 million in 2015. Approximately 55% of the ice cream in Italy is sold through the retail channel in the take-home market. The average consumption per capita is estimated at 11.2 liters if artisanal ice cream is included and 4.3 liters in the take-home market.

•    Germany
Germany is the largest ice cream market in the EEA, with a total value of approximately EUR 2 billion generated through the sale of industrial ice cream and EUR 1 billion for artisanal ice cream. In addition, there is an overall yearly growth of 2%. About 70% of the total industrial ice cream is sold through the retail channel in the take-home market and approximately 50% thereof corresponds to sales of private label ice cream.

•    Malta
Malta is a dynamic ice cream market in the EEA, with approximately 4% growth rate in volume in 2015 and the overall ice cream consumption would be close to 4.8 liters per capita.
Approximately 75% of the ice cream in Malta is sold through the out-of-home channel, i.e. impulse and catering ice markets, due to the trading seasonality on the island as a result of tourism, while 25% is sold in the take-home market.


Source: European Commission, DG Competition