Ice cream exhibition opens in Tianjin

Ice cream products are seen during Ice Cream China 2021 held in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 11, 2021. Ice Cream China 2021 opened Monday in north China's Tianjin Municipality, attracting more than 400 companies and nearly 10,000 buyers. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

TIANJIN, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Ice Cream China 2021 opened Monday in north China's Tianjin Municipality, attracting more than 400 companies and nearly 10,000 buyers.

The three-day exhibition, covering an area of over 42,000 square meters, showcases a wide range of products in the ice cream industry, including finished products, machinery, raw materials, molds and packaging.

"China is a big producer and consumer of ice cream. Though the COVID-19 pandemic brought some impacts on the ice cream industry, it has stimulated related companies to innovate products and change their sales patterns," said Zhang Jiukui, president of China Association of Bakery and Confectionery Industry.

With the optimized industrial layout, the ice cream industry enjoys a good momentum of development, Zhang said.

According to Zhang, in the first half of 2021, the total output of 127 enterprises above the designated size in the frozen drinks industry reached about 1.35 million tonnes, up 0.46 percent year on year, with the main business income of about 16.96 billion yuan (about 2.63 billion U.S. dollars), up 10.96 percent from the same period last year.

"Our company designed hundreds of creative molds and ice cream products with Chinese traditional elements, such as ice cream shaped into the famous Terracotta Warriors and buildings featuring Chinese culture, to name a few," said Han Jun, CEO of Nicole Mold, a China's silicone mold manufacturing producer.

The company's sales saw robust growth in the first nine months this year, nearly doubled the total sales of last year, according to Han.