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July 2010 Industry News

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The PP2 retail newsletter was distributed to industry members on June 30. This newsletter featured information on proper cold chain management techniques that not only increase sales but also support retailer promotions such as going pink for breast cancer awareness. Remind your retailers that they can attract customers to the produce aisle by positioning mushrooms as a lean summer cookout alternative that’s great for customers of all types – from the health-conscious to someone looking for a hearty, meaty meal.

SHIPMENT SUMMARY

Mushroom Council First Handler Reports (millions of pounds; totals may not match due to rounding).

Current Charts	Apr-10	Apr-09	% change	YTD 10	YTD 09	% change
Total Shipments	61.68	59.83	3.08*	252.62	238.64	5.86
Domestic Shipments	53.63	52.16	2.81	221.61	209.79	5.64
PA	32.52	31.26	4.04	134.13	124.47	7.76
CA	9.77	9.36	4.41	39.03	30.09	29.72
Rest of US	11.34	11.55	-1.80	48.45	47.23	2.58
Imports	8.04	7.67	4.89	31.01	28.85	7.46

* Easter was in March this year & in April last year; shipments in April 2010 were up
against April 2009 Easter shipments.

COUNCIL UPDATE

Ballots for Council terms beginning January 1, 2011 have been tabulated and the nomination process is continuing. The next step is to submit 2 names, one for the highest number of votes & the other for the highest number of pounds – See Order 1209.31(f)(2)) for each open position to the Secretary of Agriculture which are used to appoint a person for each of the 3 open positions.

Audits for the 2009 calendar year are quickly approaching. All handlers received a letter from the Council office in regards to amending Handler Reports without penalty & interest. Since we have had the certification training the Council agreed to let all handlers, if necessary, amend all 2009 to current handler reports. The deadline to submit these amended reports is September 1^st. If you are audited and it is found that you did not amend your reports, you will be assessed penalties & late fees. If you have any questions or need any assistance, contact Cheryl.

MARKETING SUMMARY

TOTAL IMPRESSIONS/PLACEMENTS TO DATE:
June impressions overview:

Program	June 2010 Impressions	% of June 2009 Impressions	Total Year Impressions to Date	% of Annual Goal
Consumer/Nutrition	46,526,981	55%	450,152,401	82%
Foodservice	912,159	27%	4,159,206	109%
Retail	418,466	349%	1,385,126	58%

In June, the Mushroom Council had an average of 19 percent share of voice. While conducting proactive media outreach, we generally expect Mushroom Council coverage to represent between 33-75 percent of mushroom placements, according to average consumer product and commodity industry standards. This is the first time since the Council has begun tracking share of voice that we have fallen below the industry standards during a proactive outreach period. There are always external factors or industry forces that could impact this metric. For example, this year, the month of June had an increased number of articles promoting local mushroom festivals (a total of38 stories alone from June 20-30, with only three of these reflecting Council key messages). We believe that this month was an anomaly and that we will return to the 33-75 percent range in the month of July.

Mushroom Share of Voice:

Week Ending	Mushroom Council Generated Placements	% of Total Mushroom Coverage**	Type of Outreach
June 5	5	38 percent	Proactive
June 12	3	38 percent	Proactive
June 19	2	22 percent	Proactive
June 26**	3	8 percent	Proactive
Total	13	19 percent	Proactive

*This does not include mushroom recipe coverage that is not Council-generated.
**This time period includes coverage secured on June 27-30 as well.

May 2010 Sales:

Fresh mushroom sales increased by 4.3% in dollars and 4.2% in pounds in May, according to FreshLook Marketing, period ending May 23, 2010. Through the first five months of 2010, mushroom sales were up by 6.4% in pounds, accounting for more than $400 million in fresh mushroom sales (figure does not include club stores or supercenters). In other words, retailers have collected an increased $21 million dollars thanks to mushrooms this year, compared to 2009 for the same 26 week time period.

Mushrooms in the News and Online:

Mushroom messages varied in long lead placements throughout June. Umami was featured in Cooking Light; selenium in Woman’s World; and both low-cal/fat-free and polysaccharides in First for Women. The Cooking Light feature focused on satisfying bacon substitutes. It reads, “For pasta, risotto, or other relatively quick-cooking dishes that would taste weak without bacon, mushrooms are a great choice. Sautéed ‘shrooms, particularly varieties like shiitake, oyster, and cremini, add a ton of meaty richness.” This placement alone generated roughly 7.1 million impressions.

Media and consumer interest around vitamin D remains strong thanks to recent studies showing its positive connection to aging, cognition and diabetes. Dr. Michael Holick shared his perspective on vitamin D via a Q&A blog post featured on The Mushroom Channel in which he explained the importance of D, and the best sources, including mushrooms.

In addition to the blog post, Dr. Holick appeared as a guest on the syndicated CBS radio show, “Bonnie Churchill Reporting,” alongside actor Robert Pattinson, star of the epic movie series “Twilight.” Playing off the entertainment and celebrity angle, Dr. Holick wove mushroom and vitamin D messaging into the context of the movie series and the release of the third movie, “Eclipse,” which was just released on June 30, enhancing the timeliness of the Council’s message. You can listen to Dr. Holick’s interview here.

Throughout his April-June partnership with the Council, Dr. Holick attended 14 high-profile health & nutrition conferences to share his vitamin D insights, based on more than 30 years of research. At each meeting, he included mushroom messaging in his presentations. His appearances include Experimental Biology, the Endocrine Society National Meeting, Women’s Health 2010 Annual Conference, state dietetic meetings and university guest lectures. To date, Dr. Holick has personally delivered mushroom and vitamin D messaging to nearly 12,000 health influencers via these meetings.

After a successful deskside tour with Dr. Chen (City of Hope) and Dave Grotto (author and registered dietitian) in New York City in May, the Council has continued to follow up with editors to secure articles in fall issues of the magazines we visited. To date, the Council has coordinated fact-checking for upcoming articles in Ladies’ Home Journal, Shape and Bon Appétit magazines. Specifically, Bon Appétit asked the Council to provide samples of pink packaging for a photo shoot to be featured in the October issue – expected to hit newsstands at the end of September. Follow-up continues with the remaining outlets who have not yet committed to fall stories.

On June 24, the Council distributed a holiday e-blast to media to take advantage of 4^th of July recipe roundups. The e-blast was sent to the top 500 short lead food and features editors, suggesting three Council-generated recipes for readers to try during their holiday BBQs: Quick and Easy Barbecue Pork and Mushrooms, Grilled Portabella Caps Stuffed with Herb Cheese, and last year’s grilling favorite, Mushroom Chips and Dip. The Grand Forks Herald and Cape Cod Times ran articles on 6/26 and 6/30, respectively; and additional coverage from Syracuse Post-Standard, Orlando Sentinel, Macomb Daily, Telegram & Gazette, Mail Tribune, Bismarck Tribune and BiteoftheBest.com is anticipated in July.

To view all June placements, click here.

In June, the Council’s consumer-facing website, MushroomInfo.com, experienced 10,119 unique visitors. This was a decrease from the previous month, which featured three high-profile posts on the Mushroom Channel featuring food writer, Susie Anderson (post date: 5/3) and interviews with nutrition expert Keri Glassman (post dates: 5/13 & 5/20). This indicates that the Council’s blog, The Mushroom Channel, is both a key traffic driver and destination for visitors.

In June, grilling naturally surfaced as a hot topic among foodies online. Check out the “re-tweets” from Prevention and Every Day with Rachael Ray magazines. These two interactions alone generated 15,730 Twitter impressions.

RachaelRaymag

Twitter and Mushroom Channel subscriber numbers continue to rise at a steady rate. The Council has 1,900 Twitter followers and Facebook “likes” (formerly known as “fans”) to date, a five percent increase from last month. June Twitter activity resulted in 127,192 online impressions, a five percent decrease from May. To see the top 100 influencers following the Mushroom Channel, please click here.

On the Retail and Foodservice Front:

The Council also developed the PP3 retail sell sheet that addressed sales trends, cold chain best practices, information on umami in conjunction with National Mushroom Month promotions, the pink promotion scheduled for this fall and grilling recipes.

On the retail media front, a barley and mushroom salad recipe was featured on ShopRite.com, which garnered 418,466 impressions. This placement was secured through the Council’s partnership with Aisle7 to provide mushroom recipes to in-store kiosks at retailers nationwide. To view this article, click here. Additionally, the Council worked to secure placements in mushroom marketing sections for August issues of The Packer, Produce Retailer (formerly Produce Merchandising) and Produce Business.

The Council pursues editorial opportunities on an ongoing basis to promote mushrooms with various trade publications. Please share with us any news or information from your region for the following upcoming opportunities:

On the foodservice media front, mushrooms were featured in 14 different articles throughout June, which resulted in 912,159 impressions. These media placements included recipes and photos in Restaurant Hospitality, Food Management, Flavor and the Menu and Food Product Design.In Food Management, the article focused on Americans’ love for pizza and the re-emergence of classics and comfort foods. The article discussed consumers’ demand for fine food, fast, and cited the Council’s Paris Pizza with Portobello, Boursin, Brie & Grilled Chicken that was a result of our relationship with Chef Peter Leonavcius.

The Mushroom Council hosted two foodservice sales training events in June in St. Helena, CA and in Hyde Park, NY. The events were both held at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) campuses. The goal of the sales training was to help growers take advantage of the changing foodservice terrain by showcasing key foodservice trends, what operators are looking for and how to use these tools more effectively. This was the first time The Council or any Board has taken a category management approach to foodservice.

The total of 27 growers that attended both trainings learned how to become more effective assets to customers and companies by:

The trainings combined education and interaction via informational sessions, culinary demonstrations by CIA chefs, and examples of how growers can use Mushroom Council materials and concepts. At the end of the session, the Mushroom Council team led a discussion on tools available from the Council, how to access these tools more easily and how to most effectively use them to provide Distributor Sales Reps and Operator Customers with the fact-based selling information they need to sell more mushrooms. Each participant received a zip drive including all information from the seminar, best-in-class Mushroom presentations for distributors and operators, the latest research, category trends, case histories for each segment and recipes appropriate for each segment.

Attendee feedback has been extremely positive, to date:

“The information and materials I received from the sales training program will help me promote and instruct the distributor reps on strengthening their representation of the category and presentation to their customers/end users.” - Mark Leone, Modern Mushroom Farms, Inc.
“I felt that the material presented and discussions that took place focused on the bigger picture of Expanding Mushroom Consumption through new Day Parts and new Cuisine Types… The format and location was ideal. In fact, I'll go on to say that the location could NOT have been better.” - Mike Stephan, Monterey Mushrooms

If you attended either sales training and have your own feedback about what you liked or how we can make our next training better, please e-mail your thoughts to Katy Pankau at Katy.Pankau@edelman.com.

Throughout the month of June, the Council was busy preparing for the 2010 National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS) Culinary Challenge, scheduled for July 8 in San Jose, CA. The NACUFS Culinary Challenge recognizes college and university culinary professionals in a venue where they can exhibit culinary talents, techniques, and regional food styles. The 2010 Culinary Challenge's featured ingredient was the 4.5"-5" portabella mushroom; mushrooms were donated by the Council. This was the 10^th year of the Culinary Challenge and the first time that NACUFS selected a non-meat item/protein as the featured ingredient, thanks to the Council’s efforts. NACUFS chose mushrooms because of the strong versatility they hold within the college market.

In preparation for the NACUFS Culinary Challenge, the Council worked with Jim Cacciatore, Assistant Director of Hospitality Services for a local university, and Secretary/Treasurer of NACUFS Pacific Region. Together a social media plan was developed to help create buzz around this event, which included “live tweeting” during the competition and posting photos to Twitter and Facebook. This would allow those who are not at the challenge – attendees at a concurrent reception, students at participating schools, media, other attendees, friends and family of participants – a way to keep abreast of the activities in real-time. The team also worked with Cacciatore to coordinate the delivery of the donated portabella mushrooms. Stay tuned for a recap of the Challenge in next month’s shipment report!

For larger image, click here.

     In the latest Top Line report we again see continued growth in this latest 4 week time period.
     Remember we are up against significant growth last year, so this Year-Over-Year results are
     excellent. To view the current Top-line report click here.

On the Pink Front:

All pink materials are now available on the Retail Sales Tools section of the website here. Participants in the program will be receiving a hard-copy sales kit with both internal and external documents to help make your promotion a success. The external materials are available for use at retail immediately. Use the internal documents as a guide to going pink, and utilize the additional information to inform your conversations with retailers.

In accordance with USDA, the Council has updated the language on the on-pack label regarding the process of awarding money to City of Hope for the pink promotion. The new language is in-line with other previously developed materials and denotes the agreement to “provide” City of Hope with $50,000, rather than “donate.” Please ensure you’re using the correct label on all pink packaging and collateral.

Remember that the Council created an internal document that includes additional approved language for your use with point-of-sales materials and other on-pack labels. The Mushroom Council and City of Hope are happy to work with you when using this additional language, to ensure that your collateral is in-line with USDA guidelines. You can download this document here.

While we understand that many of you have retailers that do not use ready-made POS materials, there may still be an opportunity to work mushroom messages into their collateral by engaging them earlier in conversations. Such ways might be including a recipe in an upcoming newsletter or placing an ad in a future circular. The Council created an internal tip sheet to help guide your conversations with retailers that can be found on the website here.

For any questions related to the pink promotion, please reach out to Bree Flammini at bree.flammini@edelman.com or 312-233-1204; or get started by contacting the Council at 408-432-7210 or info@mushroomcouncil.org to secure your participation.

This web site is paid for by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990. This act allows commercial producers of fresh mushrooms the right to orderly collect assessments on domestic and imported fresh mushrooms. These funds are then used for the purpose of strengthening the mushroom industry's position in the marketplace, maintaining and expanding existing markets for mushrooms, and developing new markets and uses for fresh mushrooms.