Italy and its passion for gelato
Published on 13/10/2012
With spring comes the return of the craving for gelato.
And Italians seem to be particularly fond of gelato, as suggested by the figures on the sector's growth for 2011, which recorded a +2.1% increase over the same period in 2010.
The gelato business turns out to be a sector only marginally affected by the crisis, and the businesses active in Italy as of the fourth quarter of 2011 — spanning gelato production, gelato parlors and itinerant pastry shops — number more than 19,000.
These are the figures released by the Milan Chamber of Commerce, based on the register of businesses recorded in the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011.
Among the fastest-growing regions are Abruzzo (+5.8%), the Marche (+5.1%) and Lombardy (+4.5%). With 2,441 businesses, equal to 12.7% of the national total, Lombardy is the region with the highest concentration of gelato businesses, ahead of Campania (2,167 businesses, 11.3%) and Lazio (1,814, 9.5%). The leading provinces are Rome (1,323 businesses, 6.9% of the Italian total), Naples (1,029, 5.4%), Turin (773, 4%) and Milan (667, 3.5%).
Of the owners of sole proprietorships active in the gelato sector in Italy, 35.4% are women (more than one in three). In roughly one case in three the gelato maker is under 40 (32.9%); in one in eight, over 60.