In 2018, artisan gelato had a turnover of around 16 billion euros worldwide (+6% on 2017): of these, 60% (9,5 billion) is produced in Europe, and almost 3 billion in Italy alone, the country that maintains its world leadership both in terms of number of points of sale and in terms of turnover, thanks to the 39.000 ice cream parlors (10.000 specialized and 29.000 bars and pastry shops with artisan ice cream) which employ around 150.000 people and achieve a turnover of 2,8 billion euros, equal to around 30% of the European market.
Waiting to know the performance of 2019, these are some of the numbers published by Sigep, the Italian Exhibition Group's world exhibition of artisanal confectionery, which will be held at the Rimini exhibition center from 18 to 22 January, and which anticipates the great event of the Ice Cream Day 2020, scheduled for March 24th in all participating European ice cream shops.
The guest of this edition will be Holland (and therefore the flavor chosen for 2020 is strawberry yoghurt, a great specialty of the Netherlands), which although it is not among the major European producers: after Italy, the country that has by far the most artisan ice cream parlors is Germany, with 9.000 (half of which are Italian owners), while far behind follow Spain (2.200), Poland (2.000), England (1.100) and Austria (900), and then Greece (680) and France (450). Spain and Poland are also the two countries that recorded the highest turnover growth in 2018, with +4 and +6% respectively.
However, Italy remains at the top of all the rankings: here there are almost the same number of artisan ice cream shops as there are in the whole world outside the EU (39.000 against 43.000), and we are also leaders in the sector of ingredients and semi-finished products for ice cream, in which 65 companies operate which generate a total turnover of 1,8 billion euros, of which 800 million of semi-finished products for ice cream.
Finally, Italy is at the top of the world also in the sector of the production of machines and showcases for ice cream shops: it is an industrial system that has 13 machinery companies that control almost 90% of the world market with a turnover of 229 million euros, to which are added 11 showcase companies with a turnover of 252 million euros.
