A scoop of ice cream now costs two euros in some places.
But where does this price explosion come from?
Ice cream experts explain the cost shock at the ice cream counter.
Munich – Slowly but surely, spring is coming to Germany too.
The temperatures are rising and the sun is showing up more and more often.
One destination in particular is becoming more popular again: the ice cream parlour.
But this year, the shock is inevitable for many.
Because the prices have risen enormously.
The ball now costs up to two euros.
Price explosion: Ice cream used to be “too cheap”
In the mid-1980s, a scoop of ice cream still cost 30 pfennigs in many places in western Germany.
"Back then, ice cream was too cheap, they couldn't have made big business," says Gerhard Schenk, President of the German Confectioners' Association, looking back.
The association is also responsible for homemade ice cream.
Today's prices, on the other hand, are calculated very harshly, explains master confectioner Schenk.
In contrast to the freezer compartment in the supermarket, fresh products, if possible organic, play a greater role in the delicacies from the ice cream parlour.
"The quality has increased significantly," reports Gerhard Schenk.
And good ingredients cost money.
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Ice cream prices have skyrocketed.
© Jens Kalaene/dpa/symbol image
Cost explosion in the ice cream parlor: milk, sugar & co. drive up the price
The ball from the ice cream parlor consists of up to 70 percent milk and almost ten percent cream, which in turn is made from milk, explains Uniteis, the association of Italian ice cream makers in Germany.
"Does milk still taste like it did three years ago?" asks Uniteis spokeswoman Annalisa Carnio.
Milk prices rose in 2022 as a result of the war in Ukraine.
But other ingredients have also become more expensive.
Aldo Zanardo from Eiscafe Michielin in Frankfurt am Main calculates the price increases
for
Bild.de.
Here is an overview:
Plastic-free spoons: + 600 percent
Sugar: + 200 percent
Milk: + 40 percent
Waffles: +30 percent
Cream: + 50 percent
Ice price explosion: rents, minimum wage and rising electricity costs
In addition, the work in the ice cream parlors has changed over time.
In the past, the whole family would have worked for free, says Annalisa Carnio.
Today there are not only higher costs due to the minimum wage and collective bargaining agreement.
The rents for the shops have risen and recently the electricity costs, for example.
"The idea that ice cream should be so dirt cheap is simply unrealistic," explains the spokeswoman for Uniteis.
(ph/dpa)
List of rubrics: © Jens Kalaene/dpa/Symbolbild