What European country produces the most ice cream?

Germany was the top producer of ice cream in the European Union in 2023, with a production output of 612.4 million litres, new data from Eurostat has revealed.

Other countries to rank highly in terms of ice cream production (for which data was available) include France (567.8 million litres), Italy (527.2 million litres), Spain (402.4 million litres) and Belgium (190.2 million litres).

Overall, the European Union produced 3.2 billion litres of ice cream in 2023, a 1.4% decrease on the previous year (3.3 billion litres).

Ice cream pricing

Price variations for the popular summer snack across the EU were notable. Germany produced the most affordable ice cream in the bloc, with an average price of €1.8 per litre. Following Germany, Lithuania’s ice cream was similarly low priced, at €1.9 per liter, followed by Czechia at €2.0 per litre, and Sweden at €2.1 per litre.

On the other end of the spectrum, Austria produced the most expensive ice cream, with an average cost of €7.7 per litre. Hungary and Greece followed, with prices of €4.8 and €3.7 per litre, respectively. France and Italy fell in the mid-range, with average prices of €2.2 and €2.6 per litre, respectively.

In 2023, EU countries collectively exported 261 million kilograms of ice cream to non-EU countries, equating to a total export value of €1.04 billion, Eurostat‘s data showed.

France led the way as the largest ice cream exporter in the EU, shipping 52 million kilograms of ice cream to non-EU destinations, and accounting for 20% of the EU’s total ice cream exports. Following France, the Netherlands exported 35 million kilograms (14% of EU exports), Germany exported 29 million kilograms (11%), Italy exported 28 million kilograms (11%), and Ireland exported 24 million kilograms (9%).

Ice cream production by EU country, in millions of litres (2023)

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