A bad start to the British summer has made for a tough season for small businesses in the ice cream trade, according to the Ice Cream Alliance (ICA).
A spokesman for the group said that the wet weather had impacted sales of ice cream and the cancellation of summer events had further added to the slump.
Mark Gossage, chief executive of the ICA, said: "Summer fairs and agricultural events are being cancelled and it's an opportunity which many ice cream vendors take advantage of."
He added that vendors across the country had witnessed a drop in demand and in particular operators of ice cream vans would suffer, as it represents such a specialist area.
"We should take a few aeroplanes and fly the whole of the ice cream trade off to the Bahamas because there is no point being here at the moment!"
The Office for National Statistics said recently that in April to June this year food sales had declined by 0.1 per cent while non-food sales had increased by 1.9 per cent over the same period.
