Monthly Shipping Report | July 2014

COUNCIL UPDATE

• Ballots have been counted and based on the criteria provided in Section 1209.31 (f) (2) of the Order used for selecting two nominees for each position two names for each position will be submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture for possible appointment onto the Council.

• 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.

 

SHIPMENT SUMMARY

To see current charts click here.

 

MARKETING SUMMARY

Industry Resources

• Blendability landing page launched on Mushroominfo.com
  • This consumer-facing landing page is a one-stop shop for information about the Blendability technique, featuring descriptions, how-to’s, videos, photos, recipes and more. Share this destination with staff and customers whenever you’re communicating about Blendability.

• Nutrition Newsletter – Summer 2014
  • The Summer 2014 Nutrition Newsletter was distributed to 8,186 nutrition influencers garnering a 23.5% open rate. Content included the recently published Summit proceedings and a video of why nutrition experts love mushrooms. Access and read the newsletter here and share the link with your customers to provide the latest nutrition news.

Mushroom Council Marketing Summary –June 2014

• June consumer media highlights featured mushrooms in articles about Blendability, meat replacement, flavor, nutrient-rich foods, immunity and vitamin D. Click on the links below to view the full stories.

• From Stealth Health to Nutritious and Delicious, Nutrition Today, June 2014
• Move Over, Taste Buds, O, The Oprah Magazine, June 2014
• 5 Best Foods for GI Health, Health, June 2014
• A Cheesesteak… Without the Steak?, Virginian Pilot, 6/4
• Portobello a Cheesesteak Sans Steak, Denver Post, 6/10
• Nutrition Advice From the Other CIA, Bloomberg Business Week, 6/10
• Portobello’s take over this ‘cheesesteak,’ The Oregonian, 6/11
• 5 Foods for the Healthiest Breasts, Huffington Post Healthy Living, 6/18
• Top Seven Best Foods That Boost Your Immune System, Yahoo! Voices, 6/19
• Love Mushrooms? Try These Stuffed Shells, Parade, 6/19
• 4 Surprising Benefits of Vegetables, CNN, 6/19
• 10 Summer Vegetarian Mains, Huffington Post Taste, 6/23
• Good Taste: Mushroom Magic, Philly, 6/26
• 10 Foods That Help Fight Disease, The Daily Meal, 6/26
• Giorgio Fresh says mushroom growth trend also affecting organic category, Produce News, 6/26
• Skinny Chef: How to clean and cook mushrooms, The Times Picayune, 6/29
• The Power of Shiitake Mushrooms, Real Simple, 6/30
• The Benefit of Mushrooms, AZ Central, 6/30

• From June 1 thru August 1, the Mushroom Council is sponsoring Chef Jehangir Mehta’s participation in the Broadway Bites food festival – a seasonal culinary pop-up market with New York City’s most popular chefs and restaurants in the heart of Midtown. Jehangir is serving two Blendability recipes (burger and dumpling) and one mushroom-centric vegetarian dish (vegetable dumpling). Media outreach and a blogger meet up (July) will promote Chef’s booth and his use of the Blendability technique.
• The Council’s consumer “Swap It or Top It” Recipe Contest launched June 1 and will continue through August 15. This year’s consumer contest focuses on the burger. In the first month, we’ve already received more entries than 2013’s entire contest.
  • Two Swap It or Top It Facebook posts with paid support garnered $0.17 cost per like, a $5.94 CPM, 9,162 likes and 915 shares. 
  • The Partnership for a Healthier America promoted the contest and several seasonal mushroom recipes in their June e-newsletter (6/6).
  • Recipe Redux (a 200+ person blogger community led by some of the nation’s top media-savvy RDs) is running a promotion to encourage mushroom lovers to share healthy, innovative mushroom recipes that utilize the “Blendability” or “Swapability” techniques to promote the Swap It or Top It contest.
    • 37 recipe entries garnered 218,342 social impressions, showcasing recipe blog posts and photos that will continue to be shared via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
      • 37 blog posts have a combined 640,700 unique monthly visitors and garnered 815 comments and over 1,600 shares.
      • 35 tweets directly mentioned @MushroomChannel while using the hashtag #reciperedux and garnered 54,972 impressions. On Twitter, bloggers shared links to their contest entry blog post along with photos.
      • Blogger participants shared their recipes across Instagram. 14 Instagram posts garnered 578 likes and 31 comments.

• To generate new meatless recipes and content for consumer communications, the Council hosted a “Mushroom Makeover Challenge” with the Meatless Monday community of 200+ bloggers. The 33 new recipes submitted will be showcased in weekly Mushroom Monday e-newsletters, promoted across the Council’s social media platforms and combined in an e-cookbook.

• The quintessential follow up piece to the Mushrooms and Health Summit last fall is publishing the Summit Proceedings in the Journal of Nutrition. This proceedings article is significant in the ways it has and will help the Mushroom Council advance its agenda via nutrition and media initiatives. Synthesizing the collection of research presented at and supporting content from the summit, this document provides a way to bring the summit information to the influencers and researchers worldwide. Having the summit proceedings published in the Journal of Nutrition is a testament to the validity and credibility of the deep collection of existing mushroom research.
  • The first outcome was to leverage the proceedings as support in the Mushroom Council’s comments submitted to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the task force who oversees the development of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines which sets the standards for American nutrition.

• The Council hosted a Blendability demonstration at the 2014 Eat Write Retreat blogger conference and worked with Chef Bobby Fischer of Molly Molloy’s to create a menu that combined both Blendability and Swapability techniques to promote the incorporation of mushrooms in staple family meals. The menu included a turkey mushroom blended burger with charred citrus oyster mushroom and tomato garnish, a lamb chorizo Blendability corn dog and a portabella cheesesteak sandwich.

• The conference demonstrations garnered 580,751 impressions across social platforms with mushroom demo blog posts and photos that will continue to be shared via Twitter and Instagram.
  • 30 bloggers attended demonstrations where they were given the opportunity to watch Chef Bobby prepare each dish and ask real-time questions.
  • Three blog posts featuring recaps of the Eat, Write, Retreat mushroom cooking demos garnered 129 social shares.
  • Throughout the conference, 190 tweets with the #EWR14 hashtag directly mentioned @MushroomChannel with 580,751 impressions.

• June Twitter parties
  • PBH Fruits & Veggies – More Matters shared the variety of ways mushrooms and fresh produce can be used to create healthy, fresh, summer-friendly meals. Party attracted 251 unique participants and garnered 1,462 tweets and 6.8M impressions.

• USDA and First Lady Michelle Obama shared mushroom health benefits in a conversation surrounding healthier lunch options for children both in schools and at home. The party attracted 1,961 unique participants and garnered 3,357 tweets and 47.5M impressions. 

@FLOTUS Start at home – make kids healthier versions of their fav foods by blending in #mushrooms: http://t.co/SOvpoJGghD #LunchWithFLOTUS

— Mushroom Council (@MushroomChannel) June 12, 2014

A7: #Mushrooms are a versatile add-in for summer family meals that taste great! Find yummy recipes here: http://t.co/waDyGPeLEk #FreshTime

— Mushroom Council (@MushroomChannel) June 4, 2014

• The Mushroom Channel engaged with foodservice partners such as Dave and Busters, Telepan Restaurant, Moes Southwest Grill, The Capital Grille, Nectar Restaurant and Lounge, First Watch, the Daytime Café, Doc Chey’s Noodle House and Joe’s Crab Shack.
  • Council foodservice partner, Seasons 52 added a Mushroom Duxelle Blend-Burger to their summer menu with promotions via the Council’s Twitter and Facebook platforms which garnered 1,914 likes, 95 shares and 11 comments.
  • The Council provided three existing Mushroom Channel bloggers with $100 Seasons 52 gift cards to try the Duxelle Burger and share their opinions of the menu item on their blogs and social channels.

• Six promoted Facebook posts focused on the Broadway Bites event with Chef Jehangir Mehta, The Seasons 52 Duxelle Burger release, Father’s Day, National Picnic Day and the Swap It or Top It Recipe Contest (an additional $1,000 was added to monthly budget for Swap/Top promotion). Combined, promoted posts garnered $0.21 cost per like, a $6.61 CPM, 15K likes, 1,576 shares and 379 link clicks.

• Two new videos are available. The first, featured in the nutrition newsletter, features interviews with USDA experts, Amy Myrdal Miller, MS RD, and Greg Drescher of the Culinary Institute of America highlighting the healthy benefits and reasons why they love mushrooms. The second is an introduction to the mushroom blendabilty technique where CIA Chef Bill Briwa chatted with Council President, Bart Minor about how to blend mushrooms into classic family meals.
  • The Council shared the mushroom blendabilty technique CIA video in a blog post and shared across social platforms. Facebook post garnered 237 likes and 57 shares. 
  • The CIA videos received 76 views which accounted for 20% of total views for the month of June.

• The Mushroom Channel published three, new blogger recipes in June, including a Portabella Mushroom BBQ Burger recipe from blogger “A Cozy Kitchen.” The recipes accounted for 1K+ page views. The most visited posts included: Mushroom and Avocado Toast and Grilled Steak, Mushroom and Onion Kebabs.

• Search ad words accounted for 13.5% of total visits in June. Top performing keywords included: vitamin D foods, mushroom nutrition and stuffed mushrooms.

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.

For more detailed social analytics download the NEW Social Analytics Report here.

 

FOODSERVICE SUMMARY

Marketing Summary

Summer is seeing many of our efforts around Blendability come to fruition. A new chain introduced Blendability, another rolled out its new product and even another got on board with the promise of many more items to come. The Mushroom Council also presented to a number of chefs, chains and colleges about the benefits of Blendability.

Seasons 52:  This summer, Seasons 52, the upscale concept from Darden, introduced their Signature Burger with Angus Beef blended with Mushrooms. Sometimes called the Duxelle Burger, the item is Darden’s first foray into Blendability. The burger, while available on the lunch menu, can be ordered in the evening, if you ask. Darden has high hopes for this burger and it is outperforming many of their other past burgers. The plan is, if it is successful, to make all their burgers with their fresh made Mushroom duxelle.

Other Blendability News

The Mushroom Council spoke to 45 college and universities at the UMASS Chefs Culinary Conference. After hearing and learning about Blendability, a number of the chefs participated in a workshop with Chef Jehangir Mehta to see first-hand how Blendability works in the kitchen. Universities like Penn State, Cornell, Kent State, UConn, U. of Maryland and more, participated.

Also on the Blendability front, Disney introduced one of many items to come. Hilton continued to roll-out their Portabella Turkey Burger. And chefs from the International Corporate Chefs Association got a chance to see Blendability in action.

Compass, which continues its Mushroom Blended Favorites campaign, awarded the 15 top Blendable recipes in their Mushroom Recipe contest, with winners going to the Culinary Institute of America to cook off their recipe; everything from Coconut Curry Chicken Burger to a Turkey-Portabella filling for a Portabella and a Chicken Mushroom Frankfurter. The winner from St. Louis Children’s hospital has already been on local TV to talk about his winning entry. Although he doesn’t have all the facts and details straight—especially about the name of the Council—you might enjoy his segment. He, in fact won for his Lobster Crimini Roll, but he was extremely proud of his Chocolate Portabella with Candied Bacon entry which he sold at the hospital for charity. See his segment on Fox News.

Maggiano’s Mushroom Promotion: This month, Maggiano’s is promoting its Rigatone D with Mushrooms as their “Pasta of the Month”. If you buy one Rigatone D at the restaurant, you can get second serving to take home for another meal. Besides traditional promotion, the Maggiano’s Chefs Blog, provides some great information on mushrooms, including nutritional information (B Vitamins, Vitamin D, Potassium, & other antioxidants) and lets consumers know “The Trend is to Blend”. The blog concludes with a call to action to go to our website as well as sign up for The Mushroom Channel.

On the Horizon

The Council continues to work with Disney. At the upcoming Epcot Food & Wine Festival, Blendability will be showcased to tens of thousands of consumers. You should soon see results from Council efforts with Sodexo Schools, Chartwell’s Schools, other chains as well as meat companies. Compass has been so thrilled with their Blendable roll-out that they have decided to make the Superfoods Month promotion in October, all about mushrooms—from meatless to Blendability.

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.

On The Horizon

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 breakfast sausage and blended meatballs and a portabella cheesesteak. Council members will meet with influencers, processors and foodservice directors.

• Council representatives attended the school nutrition state shows in North Carolina, Texas, and Illinois in June. Mushroom shippers are encouraged to participate in their local state shows. For more information visit mushroomcounicl.org/schoolnutrition

• Mushroom Council hosted a lunch in Austin for all foodservice directors in Texas. Included in the lunch was a mushroom blended taco demo by Chef Calin. Ten districts signed up to promote mushrooms.

• Maid Rite 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.  JTM, Advance Pierre and Maid Rite will all show mushroom blended products at the School Nutrition Association Conference in Boston.

• Council School Nutrition resources can be found here.

 

RETAIL SUMMARY

The Topline report week ending 05/18/14 was sent to the industry on 6/30/14; click here to access the report online.

 

Topline Retail Report – Highlights – (4 and 52 Weeks Ending 5/18/2014)

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

• Mushroom category growth was flat in dollars and volume in the 4 week period. The category has not declined or been flat in over 2 years for any 4-week period
• For the first time in eight-4week periods, white mushroom dollars were down -1.0%. For more information on these trends, please see below

 

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

• The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +0.9% lagged Total Produce’s growth of +5.2% by -4.3 points
• South Central led in dollar growth rate at +5.6%, followed by California at +2.7%
• On a Market basis, Albany posted strong dollar growth at +16.2%. Toledo posted the largest decline, down -7.3%
• Volume in pounds for the Total U.S. was flat. Midsouth led the Regions with a volume increase of +2.9%. West declined -1.2%
• At the Market level, Charlotte showed the largest increase in volume at +12.8%

 

Segment/Variety – 4 Weeks

• Total U.S. dollar sales of the White segment declined -1.0%, while Brown mushrooms exhibited growth of +3.8%
• Both Creminis and Portabellas experienced dollar growth at +1.3% and +8.9%, respectively
• On a Regional basis, White mushrooms growth rates varied from up +3.4% in South Central to down -3.8% in Southeast
• Brown mushrooms fared significantly better with growth in seven of eight regions. California declined        -3.3%. Dollars in South Central grew +11.4%
• White segment dollars were down in 38 of 50 Markets, ranging from growth of +17.0% in Albany to a decline of -10.1% in Minneapolis/St. Paul. In the Brown segment, 32 of 50 Markets posted strong gains, including Denver (+22.1%) and Omaha (+21.0%)
• Total U.S. volume in pounds for the White segment was  down -1.6%, while the Brown segment saw overall volume growth of +4.0%, driven by Portabella mushrooms up +13.2%
• On a Regional basis, all Regions declined in white volume except the Midsouth, which was flat
• In the Brown segment, Plains led Regional volume growth at +11.9%. California declined -3.6%

 

Total Mushrooms – 52 Weeks

• The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +3.0% lagged Total Produce’s growth trend of +5.9% by -2.9 points
• Plains (7.0% dollar share) led the Regions with the top dollar sales trend of +5.4%, while Northeast holds the largest dollar share (20.7%) and grew +0.9%. All Regions posted gains
• Most Markets experienced dollar growth, notably Omaha (+10.5%), Kansas City (+9.8%) and Chicago (+9.5%)
• Total U.S. mushroom volume in pounds grew +2.6%
• Six of eight Regions delivered volume growth, led by Northeast at +3.9%. California and South Central were flat
• Only seven of 50 Markets saw downward volume trends, including Toledo and Sacramento, down -3.7% and -3.4%, respectively

 

Segment/Variety – 52 Weeks

• Total U.S. dollar sales for the White segment were flat, with California (+2.8%) and Plains (+1.0%) posting the only gains. In the Brown segment, dollar sales were up +7.8% 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 31.4% dollar share of Browns and delivered sales growth of +24.6%
• At the Market level, dollar sales trends in the White segment ranged from an increase of +7.8% in Chicago to a -6.2% decline in Toledo
• The Brown segment saw very strong dollar sales gains across 43 of 50 Markets, with Denver leading at +32.2%. Sacramento showed the largest decline of -11.8%
• Total U.S. volume in pounds of White mushrooms was flat, but growth was seen in Northeast (+3.1%). Total U.S. volume in pounds of Brown mushrooms grew +8.3%, led by South Central with growth of +16.1%
  • Brown segment volume growth trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms which have a 29.2% volume share of Browns and delivered volume growth of +29.2%
• As with dollars, the Market level volume trends for the White segment were mixed, with 19 Markets trending upward including Chicago (+8.0%) and Omaha (+6.6%)
• The volume trend of Brown mushrooms fared better, with only four Markets trending downward. Sacramento (-15.5%) and San Francisco (-8.0%) posted the largest losses
  • Strong volume growth in the Brown segment occurred in these Markets: Louisville (+25.1%), Omaha (+23.4%) and Kansas City (+23.2%)

 

Industry Tools

• Market Insights Retail Sales Tool:
  • If you are interested in signing up for the Market Insights Retail Sales Tool contact Cheryl to register.

• Blue Print for Profit:
  • An updated Blueprint for Profit is available here.