Iranian ice cream goes to Green Zone

Mon Dec 20, 2010

Iranian ice-cream chain Ice Pack is to open a branch in Baghdad's Green Zone, which is considered the most secure area in war-battered Iraq.

The shop, still under construction, will offer a choice of 34 ice cream flavors to its customers, just yards from the biggest US Embassy in the world, said the shop's Iraqi manager Ali Hazem Haideri.

Although Iranian ice cream has opened its way into the Iraqi market, there is no trace of McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King or any of the other American brands that are already established in most of the other countries in the region.

Haideri and his partner Laith who bought the Ice Pack franchise in 2008 for $800,000 are now busy at Ice Pack's first Baghdad outlet in the city's Karradah neighborhood.

A sign at the Green Zone site of Ice Pack says the shop will be the chain's 210th branch and the third in Baghdad. The franchise also plans for more branches in the southern Iraqi cities of Najaf and Basra.

According to the Ice Pack website, the company aims "to exalt the name of Iran and reinforce Iranian identity.”

"Considering the fact that countries such as the United States have been able to impose their exports on other countries by chain and brand systems but Iran has never used this method, Ice Pack has fortunately been able to include Iran in competition with the world's chain brands," the website adds.

Ice Pack has branches in Kuwait, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates as well as across Iran.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156358.html.