in the south of the country, the flourishing trade in blocks of ice

In southern Norway, the end of winter is the time for a special harvest: tractors and forklifts collect pure ice. In the “farm” of Thomas Orderud, manager of Designice, the temperature never exceeds -5 degrees. He sells his one-ton blocks for up to 700 euros. Its customers are ice hotels, ice sculptors, film directors and trendy bars. He sells an average of 200 blocks per year. In Europe, demand is growing.

When the ice reaches 50 cm thick, it must be cut. The workers are wearing life jackets because the water below them is -3 degrees. The manager boasts of a more ecological method. “To harvest the ice, we need energy for the machines, but it is very small, compared to what it takes to be able to artificially make ice”, says Thomas Orderud. At the start of the 20th century, Norway was the world’s largest exporter of ice cream. The industry collapsed with the arrival of freezers and became a niche market.