NFU promotes British-made ice-cream to public

British dairy farmers who produce and sell ice cream from the farmgate are being encouraged to sign up for the NFU’s nationwide Ice Cream Map.

The interactive map, which already features 60 farms in England and Wales producing real British ice cream, will promote UK dairy farming in time for peak sales this summer.

See also: How one dairy farm set up a processing unit to sell direct

 A campaign, “from cow to cone” will run simultaneously with the map, promoting the stories behind real British ice cream producers and the process of how its made.

The UK was the world’s second-largest importer of ice cream in value terms in 2016, buying in £235m worth of the product – equal to a quarter of total world imports, second only to Germany which imported £241m, according to research from IndexBox.

In contrast, the UK was only the seventh-largest exporter of ice cream, shipping just £106m in 2016 giving the UK a net deficit on ice cream of almost 230%.

“It’s good to be able to highlight how some of our dairy farmers are adding value to milk on farm,” said NFU dairy board chairman, Michael Oakes.

“We first recognised a couple of years ago that many of our dairy farmer members have diversified into producing their own ice cream and it would be a great idea to create a map to show exactly where the public can go to buy real, British, local ice cream.”

Mr Oakes said the NFU already has 60 producers on the map and throughout the summer months the British dairy ice cream map will continue to grow as more NFU members are added.

“Real dairy ice cream, made with British milk, has a great taste and a creamy texture. Nothing beats it.”

Farms who wish to take part must be NFU members and should ask for a consent form from NFU dairy adviser, Verity Richards at verity.richards@nfu.org.uk.