BAD NEWS FOR ICECREAM LOVERS
‘‘Unprecedented’’ icecream demand means one manufacturer is cutting back on country’s least favourite frozen treats.
Tip Top said while there is not an icecream shortage as such, it is reprioritising its production so that the more popular products will be available, including Trumpets, Popsicles, most Frujus and vanilla icecream.
‘‘We’re not going to run out,’’ sales director for Fonterra Brands Tim Carter said. ‘‘There’s not going to be a complete shortage over Christmas.’’
However, stocks of some products are lower than normal and may be harder to find, including grapefruit and lemon Frujus and goody-goody gumdrops and cookies and cream icecream.
Tip Top allows for an increase over summer each year but the hot weather had increased demand 25 per cent above last year.
‘‘It’s created demand that we’d typically be carrying into January and February.’’
Tip Top were bringing in extra staff and extra shifts and also sourcing more from their licensed third-party suppliers, he said.
‘‘We’re just really pushing things through.’’
Owner of Coronation Dairy in New Plymouth, Raymond Ou, said he had had trouble sourcing icecream since the hot weather started. ‘‘They’ve never had a full range; there’s always something missing,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s always something out of stock.’’
The most popular flavours caramel fudge, gold rush and hokey pokey and Trumpets - have been the hardest to source, he said.
‘‘We didn’t have this trouble last summer...because the last summer was pretty bad.’’
However, Foodstuffs’ head of external relations, Antoinette Laird, said there was no impending shortage of icecream or frozen yoghurt at their supermarkets, including New World, Pak n’ Save and Four Square.
‘‘That said, the weather has been extraordinarily warm over the last month and suppliers are going like the clappers to keep up with orders for iceblocks,’’ she said.
‘‘New Zealanders will have plenty of icecream for Christmas Day – and, if caught short on the iceblock front, they are easy to make with fruit juice, or your favourite drink mixer and fresh fruit.’’
Nikhil Sawant, merchandise manager of deli and perishables for Countdown, said sales for boxes of iceblocks, ice, single serve and two litre tubs of icecream were much higher than last year, and in some cases they are seeing doubledigit growth.
‘‘Suppliers are working hard at their end to meet the increased demand of an early summer.’’