Children buy Aice ice cream from Yusuf Afat's Aice ice cream sales bicycle in Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia, Sept. 14, 2023. Living in the tropics, the Indonesian people swelter through the scorching weather. Aice, a famous ice cream brand in the country, cools them down and brings joy.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

Yadi poses for photos with a freezer at her store in Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia, Sept. 14, 2023. Living in the tropics, the Indonesian people swelter through the scorching weather. Aice, a famous ice cream brand in the country, cools them down and brings joy.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

Children choose Aice ice cream products from a freezer at a store run by Andy Setiawan's family in Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia, Sept. 14, 2023. Living in the tropics, the Indonesian people swelter through the scorching weather. Aice, a famous ice cream brand in the country, cools them down and brings joy.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

A boy enjoys an Aice ice cream in Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia, Sept. 14, 2023. Living in the tropics, the Indonesian people swelter through the scorching weather. Aice, a famous ice cream brand in the country, cools them down and brings joy.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Living in the tropics, the Indonesian people swelter through the scorching weather. Aice, a famous ice cream brand in the country, cools them down and brings joy.

In Mojokerto, a small county in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, ice cream sale bicycle teams shuttle through streets and alleys every day.

Thanks to the team, Yusuf Afat, who lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, became busy again.

"Aice gave me support and hope when I was in the most difficult time. Now I can earn 300,000 rupiah (about 19.44 U.S. dollars) from selling ice cream every day, and my monthly income is several times the local minimum wage in Mojokerto," said Yusuf.

Since Aice, a Chinese-funded ice cream company, entered the Indonesian market eight years ago, it has set up three factories and established a complete cold chain logistics and operation management system, covering production and retail.

Aice participates in the formulation of ice cream industry standards and has become the leading brand in the Indonesian ice cream market.

Growing together with local people, Aice has launched programs to provide job opportunities for local people, especially helping jobless people with ice cream sale bicycle teams.

According to Wang Jiacheng, chief executive officer of Aice Group, the company has created a total of 20,000 jobs for local people, with local employees accounting for 96.1 percent.

"The working environment here is good, the remuneration is good, and you can learn new knowledge and skills here," said Suhendra, a team leader of the production department of Aice factory in Mojokerto. "I am proud of working here."

With one of the programs, increasing income for small and medium-sized stores, Aice provides freezers to cooperative stores free of charge for them to sell Aice ice cream.

As of October this year, Aice has provided hundreds of thousands of freezers to small and medium-sized stores across Indonesia.

As one of the beneficiaries, 24-year-old shop owner Andy Setiawan paid off nearly half of his college tuitions with his income from selling Aice ice cream. Excluding electricity fees, he still earns nearly 2 million rupiah (about 129.6 dollars) every month.

Not far away from Andy's shop, Yadi and her husband run a small store, which was a partner of Aice five years ago.

"This brand is quite popular for high quality and affordable price, and it is really profitable. It is one of best-selling items in our store," said Yadi.

According to Wang, fast-moving consumer goods are part of consumers' daily lives, and could have a role in how the Indonesian people see China.

"People-to-people links could be strengthened by the kind of consumer goods. I heard that a shop owner made a good living by selling Aice ice cream, and then named his newborn baby Aice," Wang said.