RIMINI, Italy — Italian Exhibition Group’s SIGEP Observatory reports the trends for gelato for the summer’s top holiday period, meeting the only Pastry Chef representing Italy in New York, at the UN Building, for the ItalianFoodFestival: “I decided to call it Gradisca,” Balacchi explains, “evoking the legend of Fellini and the traditional celebrations that open the season on the Riviera, with fish skewers and loads of fun.
It is made with three puffs filled with creamy gelato on citrus flavoured brittle, eaten on a stick, so perfect for the beach and inspired by my Romagna roots. It represents the Ferragosto August holiday period with bright colours and authentic flavours – a new slant on tradition.”
Gradisca guarantees the organic quality of the raw materials and is also all the rage at cocktail parties.
Watermelon, melon and lime – aka “Gelato Italia”. This the proposal for the 2019 August holiday period from the Italian team at the CMG Gelato World Cup, scheduled to be held at the IEG’s 41st SIGEP (Rimini Expo Centre, 18-22 January 2020, https://en.sigep.it ).
The SIGEP Observatory followed the Italian team in its training retreat: Master Gelato Maker Beppe Tonon, the team’s trainer and world famous for his decorating and fruit sculpture skills, exhorts, “We suggest everybody tastes this proposal. We added lime to watermelon and melon, as its makes the overall flavour really vibrate.”
The CMG is organized with Gelato&Cultura: the president and honorary president are two eminent figures, master gelato maker Giancarlo Timballo and journalist and author Luciana Polliotti “the gelato lady”. The team includes stars in the sector: Multi-award winning Calabria gelato maker (Roman by adoption) Eugenio Morrone, the pastry chef from Valdobbiadene, ex world champion, Massimo Carnio, Brescia chef and teacher Marco Martinelli and Ciro Chiummo, Neapolitan pastry chef and teacher, who will compete against Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Argentina, Colombia and Hungary.
The SIGEP Observatory highlights the recent CNA Agroalimentare figures, which estimate a turnover from artisan gelato of 3 billion euros for the current year, with a growth trend, if confirmed, of 10% (2.7 billion euros in 2018).
With Italy hosting a total of 39,000 gelato parlours, the city of Rome is the “queen of artisan gelato” with 1,400 specialized gelato parlours and a workforce of 4,200. From the capital, the general secretary of the Italian Gelato Makers Association, Claudio Pica, foresees a 15% increase in sales over the August holiday period.
Pica stresses “After the bad weather and low temperatures at the beginning of the season, the heat exploded and this 15% increase is a figure we hope remains constant, to make up for the negative percentage of the previous months.”
As far as trends are concerned, the 2019 August fashion is for alcoholic sorbets, with watermelon and rum and lime and vodka topping the charts: Pica explains, “They’re complex combinations to prepare and this means that gelato makers’ skills continue to grow, enabling them to build up an extraordinary globalized knowledge in raw materials from all over the world.”
Artisan Gelato Figures
100,000: gelato parlours worldwide – 60,000: gelato parlours in Europe – 15 billion euros: world turnover – 9 billion euros: European turnover – 3 billion euros: Italian turnover – 300,000: workforce in Europe – 150,000: workforce in Italy – 9,000: gelato parlours in Germany – 2,000: gelato parlours in Spain – 1,800: gelato parlours in Poland – 39,000: gelato parlours in Italy – 4.48 billion euros: revenue from the Italian-made artisan gelato product chain – 481 million euros: turnover of the Italian industry of machinery and furnishings & fittings for gelato parlours – 90%: share of the world market held by Italian gelato machinery manufacturers – 24: companies specialized in machinery and furnishing and fittings for gelato parlours – 600 million euros: turnover of the industry of ingredients for gelato and semi-finished products – 45: the main companies specialized in ingredients and semi-finished products with an overall turnover of 1.6 billion euros – 125,000 euros: export generated for Italy by each gelato parlour opened abroad. Sources: Acomag, AIIPA, Coldiretti, Confartigianato, SIGEP Observatory, Uniteis, Sistema Gelato, modeFinance, Cna Alimentare
Focus on Sigep 2020
Dates: 18 – 22 January 2020; Organizers: Italian Exhibition Group SpA; edition: 41st; frequency: annual; classification: international exhibition; admittance: trade members only; hours: 9:30 am – 6:00 pm, last day 9:30 am – 3:00 pm (3:00 – 5:00 pm only with online tickets); group brand manager: Flavia Morelli; brand managers: Valentina Sorgente valentina.sorgente@iegexpo.it and Giorgia Maioli giorgia.maioli@iegexpo.it; www.sigep.it – #Sigep2020
