Slovakia does not produce much ice cream, more often importing it from abroad, an analysis based on data from Eurostat shows. While Slovakia has never belonged among the top ice cream producers, in 2009 part of the country's consumption was covered by home production.
“Slovak factories produced about 1.5 litres of ice cream per inhabitant per year at that time,” according to Ľubomír Koršňák, an analyst with UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, as quoted by the TASR newswire. He says it is now around 30 millilitres.
Slovakia imports almost two-thirds of ice cream consumed. Customers can also find ice cream from Poland, Germany, Hungary and Belgium here.
According to a survey conducted in the selected countries by the European Ice Cream Production Association, the average European consumes around seven litres of ice cream per year. In Slovakia, this is only about three litres.
"European ice cream factories produce 6.2 litres of ice cream per EU citizen per year, while the remaining share of domestic consumption is covered predominantly by small ice cream makers," said Koršňák, noting that Europe is more or less self-sufficient in terms of ice cream production.
Concerning ice cream consumption in Europe, various surveys and statistics have shown that Scandinavian countries top the charts, with consumption exceeding 10 litres per person per year.
"Among southern European countries, only Italy posts above-average consumption figures," the analyst noted.
In the world ranking, New Zealand, Australia and the US have the largest ice cream consumption.