Gujarat proving to be hot spot for cold confectionery

MUMBAI // Gujarat is India’s ice cream capital.

Located in west India, Gujarat is perhaps most widely known for being the home state of the prime minister, Narendra Modi. But it is also famous for its innovative flavours of ice- cream, such as chilli and paan.

Gujarat is home to some of India’s largest and oldest ice cream companies, including Amul, Vadilal and Havmor, and accounts for 10 to 12 per cent of sales in India.

“The weather in Gujarat is very conducive to ice cream consumption – it’s really warm in the summer and it doesn’t get too cold in the winter,” says Ankit Chona, the managing director of Havmor, which is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. “Gujaratis in general love sweet and have a rich palette.”

He also cites the fact that Gujarat is a dry state where alcohol is prohibited and going out for ice cream is a popular social activity.

Gujarat is also a hub for the dairy industry, which has helped the ice cream industry to thrive there.

Mr Chona represents the third generation of the family business, which was founded in 1944 and now has more than 30,000 outlets across India.

He says that the company likes to come up with “wacky” innovations, which include a paan flavoured ice cream, rolled in a betel leaf, and a kesar (saffron) flavoured ice cream served inside a ladoo, a traditional Indian sweet.

It also has a saffron pine nut ice cream, which is its most expensive flavour, at about 1,000 rupees (Dh55) per litre, compared to about 100 rupees for a litre of vanilla ice cream.

“Ice-cream is perceived as an impulsive product,” says RS Sodhi, the managing director of Amul, India’s largest ice cream brand, based in Anand in Gujarat. “Thus, consumers demand changes in flavour to fulfil their desire for fun and indulgence through ice cream. Consumers are ready to experiment and are upscaling their demands. The major trend in flavours of ice- cream is super-premium or exotic ingredients.”

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