Russia exported a record volume of ice cream in 2021 – 33,000 tons worth $86 million, Dmitry Krasnov, head of the Agroexport center under the Ministry of Agriculture, said at a webinar on the ice cream market on Thursday in Moscow.
Compared to 2017, exports grew by 75% in value terms, he noted.
According to the presentation of the Union of Ice Cream Makers, last year the share of exported ice cream in the production volume was 6.2%, in 2020 – 5.8%. In 2020, 26.2 thousand tons of ice cream were exported.
According to Krasnov, the main markets for Russian ice cream in 2021 were the post-Soviet countries, the United States, as well as Mongolia and China. Mostly Unilever, Vologda ice-cream and Belgorodsk Khladokombinat sent their products abroad. Together, they accounted for almost half of the total supply of Russian ice cream.
According to Krasnov, the most promising destinations for export, in addition to the post-Soviet countries and East Asia, are the United Arab Emirates. „Ice cream accounts for about 20% of the consumption of dairy products in the UAE. In 2020, the UAE imported 10,000 tons of ice cream worth $36 million, which is 12% more in physical terms and 8% more in value terms than in 2019,” – he said.