Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | December 2023

Council Update

Council Meeting: The next Council meeting will be held on February 27 in Las Vegas prior to the North American Mushroom Conference. If you are interested in attending, please let us know so we can be sure you are accommodated.

Exemption Applications: The exemption applications for the 2024 calendar year have been mailed/emailed 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] or download an application here.

Mushroom Council Nominations – 2025-2027 Term

A call for nominations will be sent on or about February 1, 2024, for four open positions on the Council for the 2025-2027 term.

Region 1 (All states except CA & PA) – two open positions
Region 2 (PA) – one open position
Region 4 (Importers) – one open position

Mushroom growers have ideas, skills, experiences, and perspectives that would benefit the industry; be a voice for your industry by becoming part of the Council.

To qualify as a nominee, you must be a producer of over 500,000 pounds of mushrooms, on average, annually and not be exempt.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Mushroom Council encourages all eligible producers, including women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities to participate and seek nomination.

Shipment Summary

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Channel Highlights

CONSUMER

November:

The Mushroom Council partnered with renowned chef Derek Sarno for a Mushroom Holiday Recipes campaign. Chef Sarno developed recipes that debuted via e-blasts, social media, and reels. Please amplify these recipes across your own platforms.
- Follow Derek on Instagram
  - Share the Holiday recipes:
    - Crispy Sage and Onion Portabella Mushroom
    - Herby Mushroom Quinoa
  - Download the high-resolution photo and use this swipe copy for your caption.
  - Engage with the Holiday recipe content (like, comment, share):
    - Crispy Sage and Onion Portabella Mushroom:
    - Herby Mushroom Quinoa:
Mushroom Council produced more sponsorship content for Produce For Better Health. Using materials from the Real Fast. Real Food. campaign, we’ve been featured in several e-blasts and campaigns throughout November.
- KnowYour Shrooms Infographic was featured in “GrateFALL November” featured website series and promoted in 11/2 Have A Plant newsletter
- MushroomTostada recipe was featured in “GrateFALL November” featured website series Nov 1-6 and promoted in 11/2 HaveA Plant newsletter
- Superfast, super delish mushroom expert advice article was featured in “Flavorful Friendsgiving” featured website series week of 11/6 and promoted on Have A Plant social media
- Real Fast. Real Food. infographic was featured in “Cookin’ With Kids” featured website series week of11/27 promoted on Have A Plant social media
- Mushroom Pizza Recipe was featured in “Cookin’ With Kids” featured website series week of 11/27 and promoted in 11/30 Have A Plant newsletter
  - Follow FruitsandVeggies on Instagram
  - Engage with sponsorship content (like, comment, share):
    - Mushroom Tostada
    - RealFast. Real Food.
    - Check out Mushroom Council’s page on Fruitsandveggies.org

December:

The Mushroom Council will end the year by celebrating top recipes and holiday gatherings, as well as laying the groundwork for next year’s iteration of the Feed Your Immune System campaign.
- Engage with the December content (like, comment, share):

MUSHROOMS IN SCHOOLS

November:

In December, Mushrooms in Schools will be celebrating 5 Days of Mushrooms! We plan to use 5 Days of Mushrooms to reach more of our audience, such as CACFP and families. We will highlight resources and recipes all month long. Our giveaways for schools and CACFP will occur to increase engagement from these stakeholders as well as gathering wonderful mushrooms recipes. We encourage other channels to amplify Mushrooms in Schools by sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter.

December:

During November, Mushrooms in Schools kicked off the holidays by sharing family favorite mushroom recipes via blog, social media, and newsletter. Utilizing our newsletter, blog, and social media platforms, we have reached a wide audience this month. Many school districts are sharing mushroom recipes and tagging our social media platforms on their posts. On our social media platforms, we highlighted the following school districts: Waltham Public Schools, Littleton Public Schools, Ashwaubenon Food Service, Portland Public Schools, Louisiana Farm to School Program, Mansfield ISD, and Whitesboro Food Service.

NUTRITION

The Council submitted comments to the 2025-30 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee supporting greater recognition of mushrooms in the “Other Vegetable” subgroups or re-categorization into a separate subgroup based on its botanical classification as fungi. The Council cited food pattern modeling research demonstrating that the inclusion of a full serving of mushrooms in USDA’s Healthy Eating Patterns resulted in the increase of several micronutrients including shortfall nutrients, while having a minimal to zero impact on overall calories, sodium or saturated fat.
- Download to read the comments and supporting documents

Marketing Summary

Notable Highlights for October

While our overall YOY spend was down, we saw an increase in impressions/engagements on Facebook due to audience optimization.
Pinterest also received more engagements despite a decrease in budget YOY.
Derek Sarno’s Grilling Series ran from September 12th-October 31st. The YouTube pre-roll drove traffic to Derek’s long-form recipe video and out-performed industry averages on all metrics. Our Pre-roll interaction rate was 35.67% topping industry standards, 30%, by +5.67%.

*YouTube engagement metrics have changed. Digital metrics are constantly evolving, so we created our own updated Engagement metrics (comments + shares + likes + dislikes + subscribers lost + subscribers gained)

Special Campaign Impressions
Includes paid promotions, partnerships and advertising activities.

Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 11/08/2023

Download the latest quad-week retail data providing deep insight into fresh mushroom sales at retail. A few of the highlights:

The marketplace continues to have a substantial impact on grocery shopping trends, including fresh produce and mushrooms. Download the latest sales results based on data insights partner, Circana, for the time period ending November 5th 2023. A few of the major findings:

Consumer Confidence remains subdued over inflation concerns, which continues to favor at-home meal preparation.
About 8 in 10 consumers did buy restaurant food in October, with an above-average share among high-income household.
Money-saving measures remain front and center, driving more trips but fewer items per visit.
Mushroom dollars, units and volume sales were down versus year ago levels, but did rise over the prior quad-week period by 1.4%.
Fresh mushroom prices are flat and promotions are becoming more widespread.
Specialty and organic mushrooms remain areas of strength for the category.

Retail Tracker 11/05/2023

Sales Review 11/05/2023

Retail Performance 11/05/2023