Ice Cream in Korea: Sponsored by Host: 40th International Hospitality Exhibition
Everyone loves ice cream (and gelato), however, the definition of what ice cream is or what would be relative equivalents might differ in the eyes of Koreans. Since 2013, sales of ice cream market size has decreased from 1.6 Billion USD to 910.9 million USD due to increased competition from shaved ice stores, juice shops and cafes. All these sell what would be considered "ice cream equivalents." Subsequently, sales of ice cream have suffered as well dropping from 850 million USD in 2014 to 810 million USD in 2016 ( Food Industry Statistics , Nielsen Korea). However, ice cream is not suffering an irreversible downtrend. The largest competitor for the last few years have been the popularity of the snow shaved ice chain Sulbing. In 2013 they had only 33 stores in Korea but in 2014 this number exploded to 482 in 2014. However in 2015 they only added 8 more stores ( Joeilbo News ). I have personally seen a number of these stores close in the last year in prominent areas. In c