Sat, Jul 05, 2014 page5

• Ice cream war heats up with Japanese bestseller

  BATTLE LINES: Not to be outdone by FamilyMart’s tasty ‘Mango soft ice cream,’ the 7-Eleven franchise is rolling out a ‘Hokkaido Yubari melon soft ice cream’ big gun

  • By Yang Ya-min and Jason Pan / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  In the latest salvo to be fired in Taiwan’s summer dessert war, 7-Eleven convenience stores announced on Tuesday that they are introducing “Hokkaido Yubari melon soft ice cream” to do battle with FamilyMart’s popular “mango soft ice cream.”

  The soft ice cream, which is served in a crispy, edible cone or cup, has become a bestseller during the hot summer months in Taiwan.

  Liang Wen-yuan (梁文源), head of Uni-President Enterprise Co’s fresh food division, said soft serve ice creams have become the 7-Eleven franchise chain’s No. 1 seller.

  

  A woman poses with two cones of Hokkaido Yubari melon soft ice cream in Taipei on Tuesday. 7-Eleven has announced it will be introducing the popular product to its stores in Taiwan from July 13.

  Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times

  “Each store sells 200 to 300 ice creams on average per day. Some of our high-customer-density stores have sold more than 1,000 in a day,” he said.

  With the arrival of sweltering summer days and students enjoying their holidays, 7-Eleven executives have decided to storm the market with the leading Japanese seller this year.

  Hokkaido Yubari melon soft ice cream is made from milk and a prized variety of cantaloupe grown in Yubari, Hokkaido, known as the Yubari king melon — also known as one of the most expensive fruits on Earth.

  “We held meetings and negotiated with our Japanese counterparts, and the outcome is that Hokkaido Yubari melon soft ice cream will be sold in Taiwan from July 13. The price will be NT$45 per ice cream,” Liang said.

  He said the Japanese import is made from cantaloupes that have passed certification by the local agricultural association of Hokkaido’s Yubari region, to verify that the fruit are all 100 percent Yubari king melons.

  “The milk used to make the ice cream originates in Hokkaido’s Tokachi region and is processed within 48 hours to become an ingredient for ice cream. Then it is frozen and transported by direct flight to Taiwan,” Liang said.

  In the first week after July 13, the new flavor will only be available at 10 selected 7-Eleven stores in northern, central and southern Taiwan, but availability will be expanded in stages to 300 stores, the chain said.

  “We expect to break new records for sales of soft serve ice cream in Taiwan,” a 7-Eleven spokesperson said. “Since the introduction of Hokkaido Tokachi milk soft ice cream in October last year, we have equipped 900 of our stores around the nation with soft serve ice cream machines. Up to now, we have sold more than 1.8 million ice creams at our stores.”

  A FamilyMart official said that its mango soft ice cream has set an in-house sales record since its introduction last month. It surpassed the sales of strawberry soft ice cream that came on the market at about the time of Valentine’s Day.

  “We will introduce two or three new flavors of soft ice cream by the end of the year. There is red-hot competition in the soft ice cream market in Taiwan, which is estimated to generate about NT$5 billion [US$167.3 million] in business annually. It is known as a ‘platinum’ market,” the official said.
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