In European Giornata of Gelato Artigianale, the only Day that the European Parliament dedicates to a food, Gelato Day, celebrates its tenth edition with a wide range of initiatives to spread the culture of artisan ice cream as well as promote the enhancement of ice cream, a product capable of sustaining a turnover of 8,7 billion euro, with over 65.000 points of sale and 300.000 employees only in Europe, as well as an entire supply chain: from the sectors of agri-food products, ingredients and semi-finished products, to that of machines and equipment for artisanal gelato.
As per tradition, Gelato Day also has its own for 2022 “Taste of the Year”, which is offered in all ice cream shops. The absolute protagonist of this edition is "Sweet Symphony", chocolate and hazelnut-based ice cream with fresh ricotta and dried figs in rum syrup, whose recipe was signed by Silvia Chirico, owner of the Chirico estate in Ascea (Salerno), winner of the European competition organized by Artglace in collaboration with Longarone Fiere Dolomiti and Italian Exhibition Group (IEG).
Numerous events will be celebrated on the occasion of Gelato Day, in Italy and abroad, with the particularity, this year, of being able support the people of Ukraine severely affected by the war, enjoying a homemade ice cream in a gelateria (on the website www.gelato-day.it it is possible to consult the list of ice cream parlors participating in the Day) or directly at home with Deliveroo, partner of Gelato Day.
The taste of the year: Dolce Sinfonia
«After two years of closures due to the pandemic, today we celebrate the tenth anniversary of Gelato Day by officially inaugurating the 2022 season of artisan gelato: a season that we hope will be a real recovery for the whole sector and for the entire supply chain, and above all a season that will see us more united and closer – explains Domenico Belmonte, President of Artglace. The European Artisanal Gelato Day represents the union of all European countries and has grown over the years involving numerous other countries, all united by the same great passion for artisanal gelato, which has always been an expression of quality, authenticity and territoriality, capable to get everyone, big and small, all over the world to agree".
And, waiting for the Day, you can find out how the master gelato makers of Europe prepare "Dolce Sinfonia" thanks to the videos competing in the second edition of the video contest organized by Artglace, published on the Gelato Day YouTube channel.
Among the gastronomic products with the most tastes in the world, of which it is estimated every Italian consumed about 2,8 kilos in 2021, homemade ice cream is the emblem of the craftsmanship and creativity of the artisans and is appreciated far and wide across the planet by people of all ages. Not only that: it also represents excellence in terms of quality and food safety and is no less important from an economic point of view: a supply chain capable of supporting a turnover of 8,7 billion euros, over 65.000 points of sale and 300.000 employees in Europe alone.
The numbers of ice cream in Italy and in Europe.
Despite the setback caused by the outbreak of the pandemic (-35% of turnover in 2020), the supply chain has already recorded a +2021% in 25, recovering almost all the ground lost previously, as the Observatory's estimates reveal Sigep: the positive trend it mainly affected the summer of 2021, with consumption driven mainly by national tourism in the most important countries, such as Italy, Germany, Spain, and peaks due to high temperatures which supported consumption in Central and Southern Italy. And in 2022, a further recovery of tourist flows is expected, which fuels the optimism of European artisans of artisan gelato, a true trait d'union of the Old Continent, capable of combining tradition with innovation, creativity with technique, quality ingredients with the latest generation equipment.
In fact, artisanal ice cream relies on a very broad geography in which Europe is the absolute protagonist. If the ice cream parlors are present in 76 countries around the world, the Old Continent is in the front row both for the presence of ice cream parlors (about 65 thousand) and for artisanal consumption - primarily in Italy, Germany, Spain and Poland, but the presence is also important in other countries, from Austria to France, from Belgium to Holland. Italy, in particular, stands out in terms of turnover (2,8 billion euros in 2019, 1,85 billion in 2020 and 2,3 billion in 2021) and number of artisan ice cream outlets (36 between ice cream shops, pastry shops and bars with ice cream), with the highest concentration of ice cream parlors in Lombardy (11,2%), followed by Tuscany (9,3%) and Sicily and Emilia-Romagna (8,4%).
