Frozen dessert market growth for 2 consecutive years due to staying at home trend and spread of unmanned stores

▲ This file photo shows ice cream stand. (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, provided by the Food Information Statistics System(FIS) of Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation(aT), shows market growth of domestic ice cream market. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, provided by the Food Information Statistics System(FIS) of Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation(aT), shows the proportion of sales in each ice cream category. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- Domestic frozen dessert market has shown its growth for two consecutive years, following 'staying at home' trend due to prolonged COVID-19.

According to the Food Information Statistics System(FIS) of Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation(aT) and the market research company Euromonitor International on the 24th, the size of domestic ice cream market is estimated to be 1.815 trillion won(US$1,458,440,473.13).

This is about 5.1% increase from the last year's sales (1.727 trillion won, US$1,387,728,207.77). The ice cream market size has shrunk for two consecutive years from 2017 (1.77 trillion won, US$1,422,280,791.98) to 2019(1.613 trillion won, US$1,296,123,682.18) and expanded again for the next two years in a row.

The growth after 2020 is analyzed to have been affected by the increase of demand in dessert enjoying at home due to COVID-19.

The aT research team evaluated, "The market size is expanded because of staying at home trend and sales increase in unmanned ice cream stores."

However, it is unlikely that the ice cream market will continue the current growth. This is because domestic population, which is greatly influential to the size of food industry, is steadily decreasing.

The research team expected, "Along with the decrease of population, the overall growth rate of food industry is decreasing including ice cream, and since alternative desserts such as cakes and chocolates are becoming diverse, the ice cream market size will maintain its status quo for a while."

For the proportion of sales in each ice cream category as of 2020, the sales was large in order of 'bar type (30.0%, ice cream on sticks),' 'home type (19.2%, ice cream in a cylindrical package),' and 'cone type (17.7%, ice cream in cone shape).'

For the last two years, the sales proportion of cone type was bigger than home type, but the tables turn in 2020. Such phenomenon is explained by the influence of increasing demand in premium ice cream released in home type.

The export scale of ice cream is also showing constant growth.

According to the Korea Customs Service data, last year's ice cream export sales was 72.42 million dollars, 19.4% increase from the previous year. The sales of 2020 increased 11.9% from the previous year.

The research team explained, "The export sales of ice cream is increasing every year to countries like the United States, China, Canada, Philippines, and Vietnam.

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Kim Jimin.)

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