Nepal Dairy, manufacturer of Nd’s ice cream which is one of the largest selling ice cream brands in Nepal, has rolled out a new ice cream named Mango Twins in the market. “As the temperature starts increasing, our business goes up. So we have introduced the new ice cream,” said Arniko Rajbhandari, director of the dairy. Mango Twins ice cream comes in 50 ml packs and is priced at Rs 35.

Rajbhandari said that the summer season which lasts from March to September accounts for more than 80 percent of annual sales, and that the market had been growing significantly yearly. “Our annual sales have been growing at the rate of 25 percent, and we sell around 2,000 l of ice cream daily in the Kathmandu valley,” he said.

Nepal Dairy produces 17 flavours of ice creams like vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, rum raisin, cappuccino, 21 love, pistachio nut, nutty bar, keshar badam pista, almond chunk, cracker nut and pineapple, among others. Vanilla is the most sought after flavour followed by strawberry and chocolate in the second and third places, he said.

Nd’s ice creams come in 100-ml, 500-ml and 1-l packs with prices ranging from Rs 30 to Rs 160. The ice cream is sold in cones too. “The 500-ml family pack is the highest selling ice cream among our product range,” he said. He added that during the 20 years the company had been doing business, the trend of consuming ice cream had changed much. “In the old days, only kids and teenagers used to consume ice cream. Now there is increasing demand from families,” he added.

Meanwhile, Dairy Development Corporation, which manufacturers DDC ice cream, plans to sell 98,500 l of ice cream this year. “Last year, we missed our sales target by 50 percent due to the fear among dealers that ice cream would be damaged due to load-shedding as their refrigerators would not be working,” said Madhav Ojha, sales, distribution and planning chief at the corporation. According to him, DDC produces 300 to 500 l of ice cream daily in 20 varieties. DDC ice cream comes in 100-ml, 500-ml, 1-l and 4-l packs with prices starting at Rs 35.

Meanwhile, Pradeep Maharjan, proprietor of Kathmandu Dairy which produces Snow Fun ice cream, said, “We aim to sell 700 l of ice cream daily till mid-September against our daily sales of 500 l last year.” Snow Fun ice cream comes in 17 different flavours and they are available in 50-ml, 100-ml, 500-ml and 4-l packs with prices ranging from Rs 25 to Rs 1,100.  The Kathmandu valley consumes around 4,000 l of ice cream daily. Due to the growing market, many local and international brands are entering the scene. Ajjabko, Sujal and Shakti Food have a strong presence in the ice cream market while international brands like Baskin Robins, Vadilal and Cream Bell, among others, are the largest sellers in the Nepali market. Traders said that domestic brands account for more than 75 percent of the ice cream market.