EU ice cream production sees uptick of 2% in 2024

Berlin: Germany remained the top producer of ice cream in the EU, producing 607 million litres in 2024. France (501 million litres) and Italy (492 million litres) followed at the top. The list of main producers also included Spain (378 million litres) and Poland (298 million litres).

Compared with 2023, among these 5 EU countries, only Poland registered a surge in production, at +29%. France recorded a decline of 12%, Italy 7%, Spain 6% and Germany saw a slight decrease of 1%.  However, the production of ice cream increased in more EU countries than it decreased, resulting in an overall rise in production. Other significant increases were registered in Belgium (+35%), Bulgaria (+19%), and Czechia (+15%).

In 2024, EU countries exported 265.3 million kg of ice cream to non-EU countries and imported 69.3 million kg. The quantity of exports increased only by 1% compared with 2023 (+2.8 million kg), while extra-EU imports rose significantly by 24% (+13.6 million kg).

As in previous years, France was the largest ice cream exporter in the EU, exporting 55.9 million kg of ice cream in 2024 to non-EU countries. This represented a fifth of the total extra-EU ice cream exports (21%). France was followed by Italy (42.6 million kg of ice cream; 16% of EU ice cream exports), the Netherlands (31.9 million kg; 12%), Germany (28.2 million kg; 11%), and Belgium (27 million kg; 10%).