Imports of ice cream on the other hand doubled, starting from less than EUR18 million in 2009 and going to more than EUR30 million.
There are three major ice cream factories in Romania with more than 250 employees – Betty Ice, Top Gel and Alpin57Lux. Another major ice cream factory employing more than 100 people is Kubo Ice Cream’s, which is now insolvent, however.
On the other hand, imports of ice cream started to increase once more and more international brands arrived in Romania and big players started closing their local plants. Nestle, for instance, whose brand portfolio includes JOE, Aloma and Nirvana, relocated the ice cream plant near Bucharest, which had 76 employees, to Bulgaria in 2008-2009.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)