India is the fastest growing ice-cream consumption market in the world followed by Vietnam and Indonesia. According to a report released by market research agency Mintel, India's ice-cream market has registered a compounded annual growth rate of 13 per cent in the last five years.
In 2017, volume sales in India are set to overtake those of more established markets, including the UK. Ice cream sales in India, according to the report, is expected to reach 381.8 million litres in 2017 and as much as 657.2 million litres in 2021.
The action in the ice-cream market has clearly shifted to Asia. India's strong CAGR is closely followed by Indonesia (11 per cent), Vietnam (9 per cent, Turkey (9 per cent) and Malaysia (8 per cent). Volume sales of ice cream in countries such as Switzerland has dipped to -3 per cent over the past five years, followed by Thailand (- 2 per cent), Denmark (-2 per cent), UK (-2 per cent) and the US (-1 per cent).
China is currently the world's biggest ice cream market, with estimated sales of 4.3 billion litres in 2016, followed by the US (2.7 billion litres) and Japan (756 million litres). However, in terms of individual ice cream consumption, the Norwegians are the biggest ice cream eaters, consuming 9.8 litres per capita in 2016, followed by Australia (9.4 litres) and Sweden (8.9 litres).
As per Mintel's report, one in three (32 per cent) ice cream products were launched in the Asia Pacific in 2016, up from 26 per cent in 2013. The share of ice cream products launched in North America fell from 19 to 14 per cent in the same time period.