Although ice cream was invented at the Florence court of Caterina dei Medici in the second half of the 16th century, Italy lags behind Germany and France both as producer and exporter of one of its typical national products, according to data published Monday by the European Union's statistical bureau Eurostat. Eurostat figures regarding 2023 showed that total production dropped by 1.4% in the 27 member States of the EU, from 3.3 to 3.2 billion litres. Germany was the EU's leading ice cream producer for the second consecutive year with 612 million litres, followed by France with 568 million and Italy with 527 million, down from the 571 produced in 2022. Overall, France was the top exporter in 2023 with one-fifth of extra-EU exports hailing from the country with 52 million kilos. It was followed by the Netherlands (35 million kilos), Germany (29 million kilos) and Italy, which in 2023 exported 28 million kilos of ice cream outside the European Union, or 11% of the total of member countries. Source: Ans a News Agency