Shipping Reports

Monthly Shipping Report | June 2014

June 26, 2014

COUNCIL UPDATE

  • City of Hope Advances Mushroom Research
    Researchers at City of Hope, one of the nation’s leading cancer research and treatment centers, recently shared the following video that highlights white button mushrooms as part of a study on post-treatment care for prostate cancer. Please share this important video that highlights the potential for new medicinal uses of mushrooms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmHJGRsOR0
  • Ballots were mailed on June 2, 2014. Completed ballots must be postmarked by June 30.
  • The next Council meeting is being held on September 8-9, 2014 in Kennett Square, PA. If you are interested in attending, please contact [email protected] so we can make sure that you are accommodated.
  • Grower /Shipper meetings are being held in June. The Mushroom Council continues to build on its successful nutrition research and promotion effort. Expanding into colleges and universities and now into the school lunch program appears to be adding a new dimension to the Council’s outreach efforts that looks promising. Come hear about recent accomplishments and programs relative to the Council’s consumer, foodservice and retail category management efforts and offer your feedback to your Council representatives. The value of the Council to the industry is strengthened by industry input and support; please attend and offer your point of view.
    The following is a schedule of upcoming meetings:

SHIPMENT SUMMARY

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To see current charts click here.

MARKETING SUMMARY

Mushroom Council Marketing Summary – May 2014

April14-Media-Impressions

social-media_celiac-awareness-posts

  • A Twitter party hosted by Produce for Kids, with Busy Working Mama as a sponsor, served as an opportunity to engage and share the variety of ways mushrooms can be prepared on the grill. The party attracted 100+ unique participants and resulted in more than 1,600 tweets and 3.4 million impressions.
  • During the month of May, the Mushroom Council highlighted foodservice partners such as Ruby Tuesday, Red Robin, Bar Louie, Old Spaghetti Factory, Brio Tucan Grille, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory.
      • During the week-long Mushroom May-nia foodservice event at the Unversity of Washington, the Mushroom Channel retweeted highlights from their dining events and live demo with Chef Jehangir Mehta. The Mushroom Channel also promoted a recap of the event on Facebook with paid support.

Post by The Mushroom Channel.
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For more detailed social analytics download the NEW Social Analytics Report here.

On the Horizon

      • Chef Jehangir’s sponsored booth at Manhattan’s Broadway Bites food festival will feature a mushroom blendability beef burger and pork dumplings, in addition to vegetable dumplings. The event runs from June 3 to August 1 and will be supported by traditional and social media promotion.
      • The Swap It or Top It recipe contest launched on June 1, encouraging consumers to submit their best mushroom burger recipes in which patties are swapped, topped or blended with mushrooms, for a chance to win cash prizes. Consumer contest promotion is underway with the Partnership for a Healthier America and Produce for Better Health Foundation.

 

FOODSERVICE SUMMARY

Marketing Summary

Mushrooms continued to “pop up” (see below) in more restaurants, more chains, more colleges and more unique places than ever before based on The Mushroom Council’s focused efforts. The Foodservice Program has extended its reach well beyond the early adopters of mushroom blendability and more chains, colleges and chefs are looking at the benefits. Let’s look at some of the traditional and non-traditional places that mushrooms are being discussed, demanded and menued.

NRA-conferenceMarketing Executives Group: The Mushroom Council served lunch and discussed blendability to 75 marketing directors of chains at the National Restaurant Association’s MEG Conference in May. The Chefs from the Westin Hotel prepared two different blendable sliders—one a Moroccan Turkey Burger, the other an upscale beef burger. The feedback was phenomenal, and the Council has already had a number of chains who have reached out to us for more information. Even the Westin hotel was impressed by the flavor of a mushroom and meat-blended burger. It doesn’t hurt that Hilton Hotels recently introduced a Portabella and Turkey Burger in many of their Hilton branded restaurant concepts.

Menus of Change: At a major conference created by the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard University, sustainability and blendability was on the agenda. A number of speakers, including Harvard and Compass spoke about their success with using blendability on their menus. Harvard spoke about their 12 menu items that are blended meat and mushrooms and how they are making an environmental impact. Compass showcased how they are rolling out the concept through their business dining, higher education, K-12 and healthcare businesses. Harvard served their lasagna which received rave reviews. In fact, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported on the conference and ended their article with the following:

The report concludes on an upbeat note. The Mushroom Council has come up with a blend of meat and mushrooms that kids will eat! It’s affordable, too. The Department of Agriculture has ordered some for its school lunch program. It could be used in tacos. According to the President of the Mushroom Council: “This is revolutionary because it’s so simple. It’s meat and mushrooms. They go together like peanut butter and jelly.”

Here is the link to the full article. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-10/nutrition-advice-from-the-other-cia

UofW-mushroom-maniaUniversity of Washington: Mushroom May-nia descended on to campus for a full week in, of course, May. Several of the school’s dining halls served a rotating menu of mushroom dishes all week. Everything from roasted chicken with mushroom sauce to pulled portabella mushrooms and smoked tofu in a steam bun. A free sampling at the university’s highly trafficked “Market” caught the attention of hundreds of students, who lined up to try the simple sautéed white button mushrooms. Mid-week, Mushroom May-nia excitement grew as students were ready to welcome Food Network celebrity Chef, Jehangir Mehta for a prestigious private dinner and live cooking demos. On Wednesday night Chef Mehta prepared a special dinner for a table of 20 guests including the University’s President, Michael Young, and several students who were nominated by their peers for the exemplary leadership skills. Thursday’s demo brought 100 hungry students to UW’s “Chef’s Table” at Local Point Dining Hall to see Chef cook his famous Graffiti Slider Burger; a blend of portabella mushrooms, king mushrooms, and angus beef. Students in the audience couldn’t believe how much flavor the blended burger had, some even exclaiming “I never would have guessed there were mushrooms in it!”

world-cup-stanfordWorld Cup Mushrooms: Stanford has been a strong partner with the Mushroom Council. As we showcased last month, they have recently hosted a famous chef, Mark Miller, who taught a class about mushrooms in Mexican cuisine. They also conducted a Cardinal Cook-Off for students where students needed to cook with seafood and, of course, mushrooms. Because they are true believers in the nutritional and sports performance properties of mushrooms, mushrooms made it on an important training menu in Palo Alto. Turns out that the U.S. Soccer World Cup team trained at Stanford, and Stanford’s head of Performance Nutrition Dining and Executive Chef created the training menus. Below are several photos of items that were on the U.S. Team’s training table, so hopefully mushrooms will provide them with what they need to get out of their first round playing several of the top teams in the world.

bwayBites-boothMushrooms Are Popping up at Broadway Bites Market: Broadway Bites (#BwayBites) is a seasonal pop-up food market in Greeley Square Park, New York. This market is presented by UrbanSpace and brings together New York City’s most popular chefs, small culinary businesses and artisan producers, setting them up with outdoor kitchens in the heart of Midtown. The Mushroom Council is proudly partnering with Chef Jehangir Mehta, of Graffiti and Me and You restaurant to bring mushroom-centric dishes to this second annual event. Chef Jehangir Mehta’s space is focused around mushrooms and features a large oyster mushroom backdrop. Chef Mehta, is offering 3 mushroom menu items; Pork and Portabella Dumplings, and Veg Mushroom Dumplings, both served with fried semolina for crunch; and their signature item, the Graffiti Burger, an Angus beef and mushroom blended patty topped with pickled onions and shiitake mushrooms, served on a brioche bun, and accompanied by garlic fries. The event will run daily from June 3rd to August 1st, from 11 am to 9 pm.

Menu Development: The Council has directed a number of new menu development opportunities with chains—some with blendability and others looking at the versatility of mushrooms. After a presentation at Disneyland, the Executive Chef of the Park decided to add a mushroom-beef taco salad and potentially other items at the Park. A number of major chains have been exposed first hand to blendability and other uses, and we should see some of these opportunities come to life. One chain is intending to introduce a new item in the next several weeks.mushroom backdrop.

Upcoming: This summer will be exciting with more menu development sessions, more new products coming out on menus, more promotional opportunities and more editorial. Plate Magazine, as part of our Chefs Table sponsorship is putting together an advertorial placement for their next Vegetable issue that will feature a recipe for last year’s event in Portland.

SCHOOL NUTRITION SUMMARY

      • Mushroom Council is planning to exhibit at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference in Boston in July. The council will serve fresh mushroom blended samples and meet with influencers, processors and foodservice directors.
      • Mushroom Council sponsored the Culinary Institute’s Healthy Flavors, Healthy Kids conference in San Antonio. Attendees of the conference sampled blended tacos, meatballs and more while hearing a presentation from Cincinnati Public Schools foodservice director and mushroom advocate, Jessica Shelley. Many districts in attendance have incorporated mushroom blended entrée into the lunch menu.
      • Council representatives will be attending the school nutrition state shows in North Carolina and Texas in June. Representatives will sample the taco blend and mini meatballs at each conference. Mushroom shippers are encouraged to participate in their local state shows. For more information visit mushroomcounicl.org/schoolnutrition
      • Mushroom promotions are currently being planned for Austin, Baltimore, Dallas, Philadelphia and Oakland for Fall 2014.
      • Maid Right and Advance Pierre have joined JTM to provide mushroom blended burgers for the National School Lunch Program by introducing mushroom blended burgers with Child Nutrition labels.
      • Mushroom Council advertising continued in School Nutrition Magazine, CSI Food Pro e-blasts and on the School Nutrition Website to grow demand for USDA mushrooms and Fresh mushrooms in the National School Lunch Program before the busy March ordering period.
      • The monthly E-Blast and blog posts highlighting mushrooms to promote student consuming whole foods and balanced meals were shared with our school nutrition network of over1,000 foodservice directors.
      • Council School Nutrition resources can be found here.

 

RETAIL SUMMARY

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The Topline report week ending 04/20/14 was sent to the industry on 6/03/14; click here to access the report online.

Topline Retail Report – Highlights (4 and 52 Weeks Ending 4/20/2014)
Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

      • Mushroom category price/lb jumped up +1.8% in the latest 4-week period. As a point of comparison, Total Produce price/lb was up +3.7% during the same time and has been steadily increasing. The increase in average mushroom price was driven by White mushrooms, up +2.3%. Brown mushrooms price/lb declined -1.0%
      • White mushrooms bounced back from flat growth last period to +2.4% in the current 4 weeks. For more information on these trends, please see below

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

      • The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +5.5% lagged Total Produce’s growth of +6.9% by -1.4 points
      • Plains and South Central led in dollar growth rate at +6.6%, with Northeast a close third at +6.5%
      • On a Market basis, Albany posted strong dollar growth at +24.5%. Only three Markets posted declines including St. Louis, down -3.4%
      • Volume in pounds for the Total U.S. increased by +3.7%. Great Lakes led the Regions with a volume increase of +6.9%. No Regions declined
      • At the Market level, Chicago showed the largest increase in volume at +19.1%

Segment/Variety – 4 Weeks

      • Total U.S. dollar sales of the White segment grew +2.4%, while Brown mushrooms exhibited double-digit growth of +11.3%
      • Both Creminis and Portabellas experienced strong dollar growth at +7.0% and +21.9%, respectively
      • On a Regional basis, White mushrooms growth rates varied from up +5.1% in California to down -2.7% in Southeast
      • Brown mushrooms fared significantly better with growth in seven of eight regions. California declined -1.4%. Dollars in Plains grew +33%
      • At the Market level, White segment dollar trends varied greatly, ranging from growth of +27.9% in Albany to a decline of -12.0% in Minneapolis/St. Paul. In the Brown segment, 45 of 50 Markets posted strong gains, including Minneapolis/St. Paul (+67.1%) and Hartford/Springfield (+31.1%)
      • Total U.S. volume in pounds for the White segment was flat, while the Brown segment saw overall volume growth of +12.5%, driven by Portabella mushrooms up +25.6%
      • On a Regional basis, Great Lakes delivered the largest White volume growth rate at +5.1%, while Plains posted the largest White segment volume decline at -8.1%
      • In the Brown segment, Plains led Regional volume growth at +42.5%. California showed flat growth

Total Mushrooms – 52 Weeks

      • The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +3.2% lagged Total Produce’s growth trend of +6.1% by -2.9 points
      • Plains (7.0% dollar share) led the Regions with the top dollar sales trend of +6.1%, while Northeast holds the largest dollar share (20.8%) and grew +1.2%. All Regions posted gains
      • Most Markets experienced dollar growth, notably Omaha (+11.6%), Kansas City (+10.4%) and Chicago (+9.2%)
      • Total U.S. mushroom volume in pounds grew +3.0%
      • Six of eight Regions delivered volume growth, led by Northeast at +4.4%. California and South Central were flat
      • Only four of 50 Markets saw downward volume trends, including Sacramento and Toledo, down -3.2% and -2.4%, respectively

Segment/Variety – 52 Weeks

      • Total U.S. dollar sales for the White segment were flat, with California (+2.7%) and Plains (+1.4%) posting the largest gains. In the Brown segment, dollar sales were up +8.5% in Total U.S. Six Regions posted positive trends, of which four Regions in the double-digits
        • Brown segment dollar trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms, which hold a 31.3% dollar share of Browns and delivered sales growth of +27.1%
      • At the Market level, dollar sales trends in the White segment ranged from an increase of +7.1% in Sacramento to a -5.8% decline in Toledo
      • The Brown segment saw very strong dollar sales gains across 44 of 50 Markets, with Denver leading at +32.8%. Sacramento showed the largest decline of -10.7%
      • Total U.S. volume in pounds of White mushrooms was flat, but growth was seen in Northeast (+3.5%) and California (+1.2%). Total U.S. volume in pounds of Brown mushrooms grew +9.2%, led by South Central with growth of +17.7%
        • Brown segment volume growth trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms which have a 29.0% volume share of Browns and delivered volume growth of +32.3%
      • As with dollars, the Market level volume trends for the White segment were mixed, with 19 Markets trending upward including Chicago (+7.0%) and New York (+6.8%)
      • The volume trend of Brown mushrooms fared better, with only four Markets trending downward. Sacramento (-15.0%) and San Francisco (-9.7%) posted the largest losses
        • Strong volume growth in the Brown segment occurred in these Markets: Kansas City (+27.7%), Louisville (+26.9%) and Houston (+24.4%)

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