Does seasonal food make sense?

[Sakurahime]

I understand why certain food in Japan is only sold at a particular time of year, sakura being a great example. And I love the feeling of seeing food I haven't been able to buy for ages, like sweet potato or chestnut snacks and sweets in autumn. But there are just some foods that I don't understand why they're seasonal, such as mint chocolate only being available in summer. Or why Black Thunder ice cream bars only ever appear for about 2 weeks when they're so delicious (besides some kind of marketing ploy, I guess).
Does anyone have any ideas? Am I missing something?

[Louie]

Some seasonal food becomes very popular because you can only have them on a certain time of the year. Perhaps those so called "limited edition food items" are part of their marketing strategy. Items that only lasts for 2 weeks up to a month will help boost their sales. But then again, I'm pretty sure that once an item becomes very popular, they will try to permanently add it to their menu (especially in some well known cafe) until the ingredients are still available of course. There are also days on where you get "limited items" that will only last for that particular day. One good example of this is Valentines day. In Japan, valentine themed chocolate items are very popular with young couples and some are given as gifts to the person that they like. When winter comes, Christmas cake/rolls are sold in almost every cake shop in the city.

[Koohler]

We can compare it with the fruits that are only available per season. Watermelon may be abundant during summer and so a lot of sellers would just make it available to the public on that season because they won't have a problem supplying this food at all. It may be the same with mint chocolate that's available only during summer. But I think the real reason is that ice creams are only a hit during summer. So although the mint flavor is one of the famous flavors, no one would still buy ice cream during winter so it's pointless to release this at that season.