In China, ice cream boils social networks
Woman eating ice cream in Beijing, July 20, 2021. AP - Ng Han Guan
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
9 mins
A boiling summer and ice creams "
killing
" the consumer's wallet or not "
melting fast enough
" in China.
Under the hashtag #IceCreamAssassin, Internet users are denouncing soaring prices in a booming market.
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From our correspondent in Beijing with
Louise May,
from the RFI office
In a cone, in a jar or on a stick
of
natural bamboo, with the hot weather, ice cream is snapped up in the Chinese megalopolises.
The market is commensurate with this new craze that has been growing for several years.
In China, the ice cream sector has nearly 45,000 manufacturers, with sales exceeding 160 billion yuan last year (nearly 24 billion euros), reports
Sixthtone
.
"It's a growing market that still has a lot of potential,"
says Sophie Coulon, marketing director of the digital agency Slingshot in Shanghai.
The Chinese consume 3.5 liters of ice cream per year, compared to 6 to 8 liters in Western countries.
»
Advertising for an ice cream in the streets of Beijing.
© RFI - Stéphane Lagarde
Brandy or tea/cheese ice cream
If national dairy companies such as Yili and Mengniu have long remained on products at less than 1 euro, new national players have come to compete with foreign brands on the high end.
New ice cream parlors ready to attract young urban consumers eager for new trends, at prices approaching 10 euros.
Given the success, it has whetted the appetite of others.
"
Companies and even institutions which initially had nothing to do with the sector are entering the market
"
,
continues Sophie Coulon.
The most striking example is that of brandy producer Kweichow Moutai.
The brand has lost ground since the Communist Party banned its executives from receiving the famous white, gold and red bottles as gifts, a move often seen as bribery.
Last May, Kweichow Moutai teamed up with Mengniu to release an ice cream lightly infused with alcohol.
"
Moutai opened two ice cream shops in ten days,
" says Sophie Coulon.
Despite high prices
– between 5 and 9 euros –
they generated thousands of sales in a few hours, which allowed them to reach a younger clientele who were not yet familiar with baijiu
(white alcohol, editor’s note)
.
»
Examples of these defectors from sorbet and ice cream are not lacking.
A restaurant chain specializing in traditional Chinese hot pot has launched its own brand.
Ice can even become a national monument, when associated with cultural institutions.
This is particularly the case for the “ Summer Palace
” museum
in Beijing, which offers visitors its homemade ice creams.
Manufacturers must respond to a demand for “
products
” that are low in fat and sugar.
You also have to be creative – shapes, flavors, components – if you want to satisfy a clientele hungry for new products.
All tastes are allowed, provided that the result meets the requirements mentioned above.
“Last year, the French dairy products union
(with which the Slingshot.-NDLA agency works)
in partnership with a local brand
,
made several proposals around cheese which worked well
: the
creation of an ice cream with Mimolette and tea in particular, and another with Fourme d'Ambert combined with figs
“recalls Sophie Coulon.
The operation will be renewed this year, given the previous success and the weather: “
People consume a lot of ice cream with
the heat wave
,
for example these days the thermometer in Shanghai exceeds 40 degrees.
An ice cream to quench your thirst right now, I can tell you that it feels good!
»
Green tongue ice cream.
© RFI - Stéphane Lagarde
“Green tongue” and blowtorch ice cream
In a grocery store near a school in the Ritan district in Beijing, this Thursday, July 14, smiles and clapping of palms mark the end of the school year for elementary courses.
Joy, but also a little pain in separating from friends and girlfriends.
Come on, one last ice cream for the road!
In the narrow aisles of the store, backpacks and satchels jostle.
Fortunately, the ferry is located near the entrance.
Quick, quick… the arms and sometimes the heads dive inside.
Then, the hands rise triumphantly brandishing the frozen sticks drawn from the bottom of the treasure chest.
Among the most popular, a green ice cream at 2 yuan, that is to say less than 30 euro cents.
“
Many people miss the 1 yuan popsicles of childhood, but that period is over.
says a wholesaler to the
China Economic Weekly,
who complains of “fierce” competition within the industry and the inflation of distribution costs.
Without having analyzed the entire production process, school children and especially their parents are well aware that cheap ice cream is becoming rare.
"
There weren't any more at the market the last time, but here they have put them back," rejoices one of the schoolchildren.
'Green tongues' ice cream
is very fashionable at the moment
.
What is good is that after a while the ice cream becomes translucent and soft like a tongue.
That's why it's called the 'green language'.
»
A translucent and gelatinous ice cream, there is something for everyone, but some still have questions about the content.
Especially when the ice cream is high-end, seeing ultra-high-end like the " salted coconut
" ice cream
from the Zhong Xue Gao brand, which everyone is talking about these days in China.
An ice cream examined from every angle, sometimes tortured with a lighter and even a blowtorch to prove that it “does
n't melt fast enough
”.
This is the conclusion reached by a user at the end of last month.
He says he forgot his ice cream outside, by 31 degrees, without it being "
totally melted
" when he found it.
The video of his experiments showing that ice '
doesn't melt enough
' has gone viral.
A cohort of Internet users hastened to make the same experiences, forcing the authorities to open an investigation.
Ice cream is not ice cream, the manufacturer then replied, defending a "
viscous
" formula based on "
cream, coconut milk, condensed milk, whole milk powder and egg yolk
".
But the model will struggle to recover.
“
If this brand more than any other is the subject of such a scandal, it is primarily because the company claims the use of healthy and natural products
, specifies Sophie Coulon.
The company is also nicknamed the 'Hermes' of ice cream, due to the high prices charged
.
Some consumers felt stabbed in the back by the brand.
»
"Assassin's Ice Cream"
Down with coconut, down with solidified ice cream!
In an article titled: “
Why is ice cream suddenly
'murdering' us?
“
,
the
China Daily
recalls that the luxury ice cream maker was sentenced twice in 2019 for false advertising.
Regular raisins would have been referred to as “premium raisins” on the packaging.
As for the “Japanese” stamped tea leaves used among the ingredients, they would never have left China.
This storm in a frozen tank prompted the authorities to react.
On July 1, new regulations from the General Administration of Market Regulation came into effect,
Beijing News
points out
.
Labeling requirement: The state requires operators to display prices in a visible manner.
It is also a question of specifying in detail the composition of the product.
Investigators would have been sent to check the freezers of large and small surfaces to verify.
The collective grievances of consumers are aimed at the absence of labels and the lack of transparency on prices in stores.
Ice creams are priceless in self-service freezers, and the customer only discovers that they are expensive when checking out.
Disgruntled netizens dubbed them “
ice cream killers
.”
Ice cream that kills, or at least stabs your wallet, if you're not careful.
Marketing, fad, scam, soaring prices in the frozen aisle is also quite simply linked to the international context.
Raw materials increased by 6, 7 and 9% respectively for sugar, milk and eggs, notes the national statistics office in Italy, quoted by the
iChongqing
site
.
In hot weather, cold chain logistics are 40 to 60% more expensive.
This does not prevent volumes from increasing.
Online sales of ice cream in 2020 accounted for 5% of the market, the proportion rose to 20% in 2021. Ice cream is an “
emotional
” product, Zhu Danpeng believes, quoted by
China Economic Weekly
.
For this food industry expert, if some ice cream is so expensive, "
it is that they have social attributes that give it added value.
»
A question of prestige which accompanies the requirement of quality, and which one would not find elsewhere: "
As
you can see with other
cold chain dairy products, these have not risen in price as fast as ice cream.
This is why also in this scorching summer, the hashtag #CrèmeGlacéeAssassin has entered the common language.
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