Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | November 2021

Council Update

Open Positions on the Council (2022-2024 term):

The nomination package has been sent to the Secretary of Agriculture for appointments.

Region 2 (PA) – two open positions
Region 3 (CA) – one open position

Exemption Applications:
The exemption applications for the 2022 calendar year will be mailed to those who are currently exempt. If you do not receive an application and would like to apply for an exemption, please email [email protected].

Next Council Meeting:
February 10-11, 2022 – TBD

Shipment Summary

To see current charts, click here.

The Month Ahead

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

The Blended Burger Contest Winners will be announced in the Nov, 8^th edition of Food Network Magazine, capping off a highly successful campaign that saw over 1.4k entries.
Social/digital content will focus on thankfulness for mushrooms, as well as recipe content suited for the whole family.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

In November, Mushrooms is Schools will be highlighting National Vegan Day, Catering Ideas for School Nutrition, and a “Grateful for School Nutrition Campaign”. This will include social media, blogs, and newsletters targeting school nutrition professionals along with the communities they serve. You can support Mushrooms in Schools by following our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Highlights from October

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

October social/digital content focused on vegetarian recipes to support World Vegetarian Day (10/1), mushroom variety spotlights in celebration of National Mushroom Day (10/15) and game day hacks & recipes throughout the month.
As part of our retail dietitian program, Mushroom Council lead a webinar in partnership with Retail Dietitians Business Alliance utilizing recent research findings on voluntary Nutrition Facts labeling.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

During October we celebrated National Farm to School month with Mushroom in Schools tailored social media posts on agriculture, recipes, resources, and sustainability. NxtGen Network’s Served Digizine Magazine showcased our Mushrooms in Schools ad on National Farm to School Month. We added Gwinnett County School District recipe – Gluten-free Fresh Veggie Pizza – to social media and recipe collection. View our Mushroom Tasting Blog for resources and tips on introducing mushrooms to students. We encourage you to share across social media networks as well.

Sales Materials

SCHOOL NUTRITION

Mushrooms in Schools created a Mushroom Sourcing Catalog, which can be found at our website. We encourage you to share on your own social channels and encourage your sales teams to share with your school foodservice clients and contacts.

Metrics

Mushroom Channel

Blenditarian

Hashtags

Monthly Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 9/5/2021

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

Fresh Mushrooms continued to post strong dollar and volume growth when compared to 2019 before the pandemic surge. The mushroom category experienced +11.0% dollar growth and +7.3% volume growth over the past 2 years. The Southeast and West regions combined drove 28.4% of dollar growth adding $3.3M collectively to the category over the 2 year period.
Fresh Mushroom retail sales remained softer for the current period as compared to the pandemic sales levels of 2020. During the 4 week period, the mushroom category recorded sales of $93 M, which was down 7.8 % from a year ago. On the national level, all mushroom segments showed softer sales, while Portabella mushrooms saw double digit volume growth of +17.4% in the Southeast region for the period.

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

Fresh Mushroom sales declined -7.8% in dollars, while Total Produce dollars gained +2.7% this period
Mushroom category volume fell -9.7%, while the average price/lb. was $4.30/lb. (+2.1%)
Conventional dollar sales posted a decrease of -8.2%, while Organic dollars declined -4.8%

*IRI/FreshLook Data provided by Fusion Marketing

Click Here for the Full Topline Report