Aggie ice cream moves into international marketplace
When students wandering around on campus have an urge for Aggie ice cream, most know they can head for the Nutrition and Food Sciences Building.
But what if you were in, say, Korea? Students can find Aggie ice cream there too, said Andrew Hong, employee of the Utah State University International Students and
Scholars office.
USU has been exporting Aggie ice cream to Seoul, Korea for a year and a half. Currently, 11 stores sell the product there. One reason Aggie ice cream has been such a success in Korea is because of its name. The word “aggie” is similar to a word in Korean meaning “a cute, cuddly baby,” Hong said.
The name appeals to Koreans, and so does the fact the ice cream is made at Utah State University.
“People in Korea have a very high respect for universities,” Hong said. “It creates sort of a mystique.”
The demand for Aggie ice cream in Seoul is so large there are plans to expand the venture nationwide, with the possibility of more than 50 to 100 stores in the future, Hong said.
It all began when a USU student from Korea decided to try and sell the famous ice cream in his homeland after he graduated. Now, the Aggie treat has become so popular there USU’s ability to supply the product could soon be facing a problem.
Don McMahon, a professor of dairy foods, said in the past 18 months, the six shipments of 5,000 gallons easch have been sufficient to meet the stores’ needs in Korea. But if the expansion goes as planned, the current facilities at the university will not have the capacity to produce enough ice cream to satisfy such a high demand.
To manage the problem, USU is looking at the possibility of having a dairy company in Idaho Falls produce Aggie ice cream under license from the university. Some initial trials are being conducted to ensure the company will meet the standard of quality the university expects, McMahon said.
Another possibility would be to use money from private investors to build an ice cream factory in Cache Valley and keep the production of Aggie ice cream local.
Although USU hasn’t received much in the way of revenue from the sale of ice cream in Korea, Hong said if the business continues to grow, there will be a financial benefit to the university.
But the sale of Aggie ice cream in Seoul has had other advantages for USU. The popularity of Aggie ice cream gives the university name recognition overseas and serves as a recruitment tool for international students from Korea. There are already students enrolled at USU this semester who initially heard about the university through Aggie ice cream, Hong said.