Recognition of products at the state level is an important factor for Chinese consumers. Another proof — ice cream, produced by Korenovsky Dairy and Canning Plant, which was unexpectedly made famous in China, as confirmed by the plant's CEO Igor Moskovtsev in his interview with RIA Novosti.

The plant delivers products under the brand of Korovka Iz Korenovki. Russian President Vladimir Putin bought ice cream of that brand at the MAKS-2019 air show in Zhukovsky and even treated his Turkish colleague Tayyip Erdogan to it, as well as others: Putin brought the brand’s ice cream as a gift to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Hangzhou in 2016, as well as in 2019, on the day of the 66th anniversary of the Chinese leader.

“We've been engaged in ice cream making from 2011, still “young” manufacturers on this market. But it wasn't us who started to call the brand ‘Putin's favorite ice cream’, of course,” Moskovtsev said, noting that when the Russian President presented a box of ice cream to Xi Jinping, no one mentioned the brand. He himself did not know what kind of ice cream was in the box, but someone from the Chinese side, apparently, took a look at the label, remembering the brand.

Moskovtsev added: “Some time later a delegation from China arrived in the Krasnodar Krai. They unexpectedly asked the regional administration to show them our plant. The first question, when the guests reached our production facilities, was: “Why did our president received your ice cream as a gift?”

“They thought that ice cream was made on purpose, even by hand; so the Chinese inspected our production site, asked where cows were, what hay they ate, whether they gave real milk. Then they began to ask what kind of ice cream was in the box for Xi Jinping. I didn't know but made a guess that it was ice cream in waffle cones. They immediately started tasting the available ice cream in cups,” the agency's interlocutor shared his memories.

“Of course, we are pleased that we are suddenly a state-level ice cream vendor,” Moskovtsev said. “In China, in general, everything works if there is support from the state,” he added, pointing out the other side of such popularity — fake products.

“For example, we learned that we had allegedly opened an office in Shanghai and were producing ice cream from natural milk powder. And everywhere there are photographs with Putin, Medvedev, even me: we had to make every effort to counter such ‘advertising’,” Moskovtsev recalled.

“Now we warn everyone who wants to work with China about the importance of protecting intellectual rights: if local consumers like your products, it may happen so that someone else will register such rights to their company,” he said.