Russian Ice Cream is Quickly Winning Over China
Russian ice cream is quickly winning over China. This year this product's popularity reached an all-time high. It all happened thanks to the growing sales between two countries, when Chinese consumers could literally taste Russian ice cream. Anastasia Sakhovskaya reports from China why they can't stop eating it.
The value of Russian ice cream can't be measured in yuan for the Chinese, even though it costs twice as much as the local product. Supply and demand keep growing in stores.
- Many customers asked why we didn't have products from Russia, ice cream particularly.
We gave it a shot. Just a month later, the results are great.
No trouble with translation. The contents are listed in logograms. Chinese started looking at the label, not the price tag. They value natural products, which Russian food is famous for in China.
- I like it more than the Korean kind, because the taste is more intense and you can taste the milk.
September here is traditionally hot. It's still over 30° Celsius, but ice cream demand doesn't depend on the weather.
The warmer the relationship between Russia and China is, and right now the degree of mutual trust is at its highest, the higher the ice cream sales. This year, the treat's export increased by 40%. China is first in line to buy Russian ice cream. Supply volumes keep growing here.
China really got a taste of the sweet treat after Vladimir Putin treated Xi Jinping with some ice cream during the G20 summit in Hangzhou. For the Chinese, their leader's taste is a sign of top quality.
- They talked about ice cream on the news, they put pictures of Vladimir Putin eating ice cream on the refrigerators. Now I buy it, it's really delicious.
Ice cream made it to China even from St. Petersburg. Russia's largest and oldest supplier began deliveries. Seaport Qingdao receives the containers after they spend 1.5 months in the sea, then go through customs. Now they have all the infrastructure for receiving and storing the product. Vessel refrigerators, special warehouses, where the winter is constant at -20° Celsius.
- This is the first party of ice cream, imported from St. Petersburg.
The refrigerators are already in 600 stores. By New Year's, they plan to triple the deliveries from St. Petersburg, at the least. A few more large ice cream producers in Russia count on a warm welcome in China. Anastasia Sakhovskaya, Mikhail Artyukhin, Peking Vesti Bureau from Qingdao, China.