People turn to hot desserts; shops stock dry ice

Home-maker Aarti Patel, 32, lives in Kalwa in Mumbai. She and her friends meet up every week for a pot-luck. These parties were incomplete without ice cream. Now, thanks to the recent power cuts they are unable to store the ice cream and have moved on to eating gooey brownies with hot chocolate sauce.

As the mercury soars this October, the coal supply crisis in the country has already impacted the suburban areas of major metros and Tier II cities. “We have been facing power cuts for over ten days now. Electricity goes for five to six hours of the day,” said a resident living in a Mumbai suburb. According to ice cream manufacturers, Uttar Pradesh and pockets of Bihar are the most affected.

The ice cream market has been growing at 15 to 20 per cent every year, but if this power shortage continues this growth may stagnate or even decline, say experts.

However, multi-brand

kirana shops with their mini-refrigerators are finding it very difficult to store ice cream when the power is cut. . “It may be easy for bigger ice cream parlours to store the commodity in their big deep-freezers. As we have a small fridge, we keep it closed so that the heat does not enter when the power goes off and the ice cream does not melt. Even if customers come asking for ice cream we refuse to sell it to them,” said Mr Raju K. from Santosh Provision Store in Mumbai.

Some kirana shops have started keeping dry ice stocks to prevent the ice creams from melting. “We deliver ice cream to customers in dry ice boxes so that it does not melt at least till the power comes back,” said a shop owner in Kalyan, who is charging extra to supply these boxes.

“All these are temporary measures and none of them are cost-effective. Unless there is a solution to this power shortage problem, nothing can be done,” said Mr Rajesh Gandhi, President, Indian Ice Cream Manufacturers Association.