Monthly Shipping Report | December 2014

COUNCIL UPDATE

• The 23rd North American Mushroom Conference is taking place in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 22-24, 2015. To register, visit mushroomconference.org. The Council will hold its first meeting of 2015 on Thursday, January 22 before the NAMC opening reception. If you plan on attending, please email [email protected] so we can make sure you are accommodated.
• Exempt Producers: 2014 exemption numbers will expire on December 31 and it is necessary to reapply for the 2015 calendar year. Applications, as a courtesy, will be mailed to those who were exempt this year. If you would like an application, they can be found online at mushroomcouncil.org or contact Cheryl at 408-432-7210 or [email protected]
• Nominations: A call for nominations for 3-year terms beginning January 1, 2016 will be mailed no later than February 2, 2015. The regions with a position opening up are Region 1; all states except CA & PA (one position), Region 2; PA (two positions) and Region 3 (one position). Please consider being a part of the Council.
  • USDA and the Mushroom Council encourage all eligible producers, including women, minorities and individuals with disabilities to participate in the nominations and seek nomination to serve on the Council.

 

SHIMPENT SUMMARY

To see current charts click here.

 

MARKETING SUMMARY

Mushroom Council Marketing Summary –November 2014

• New Tastes in Mushroom Land, Cooking Light, November 2014
• A-Z Fighting the Cold and Flu Survival Guide, Good Housekeeping, November 2014
• Weeknight Cooking, Food Network Magazine, November 2014
• Spring provided ideal conditions for a bountiful fall crop of mushrooms, Herald-Review, 11/2
• Mushroom Council marketer promoted, The Packer, 11/3
• Celebrate the “fifth taste” with peak-season mushrooms, Whole Foods Market, 11/4
• The Food Lab: How to Make Vegan Stuffing That Really Rocks, Serious Eats, 11/4
• Your 8-Step Cold-Fighting Diet Plan, ELLE, 11/10
• The scientific magic of tasty mushrooms, Miami Herald, 11/11
• Magic of mushrooms, Miami Herald, 11/12
• Vegan Survival Tips for Thanksgiving, Yahoo! Food, 11/24
• Chain Reaction: Mushroom burger edition, Chicago Tribune, 11/24
• Chef Brandon Kida on the Magnificence of Mushrooms, Daily Meal, 11/25
• 7 simple weight-loss foods, FOX News, 11/29

Trade Media
Mushroom Council Marketer Promoted– The Packer, Produce News, Produce Business
Mushroom Marketing and Blendability Spotlights were shared with the Produce Business, Grocery Headquarters and Food Management

• Case studies from the Council’s blend retail activations with Kroger and Weis Markets are available upon request. Please contact Katie Preis for information (Kathleen@ mushroomcouncil.org).
• The annual survey of health professionals found that 74.48 percent of dietitians surveyed recommend mushrooms to their clients. This represents a 96 percent change from when the survey began in 2008, and a 7 percent year over year change from 2013.
• Mushrooms: Biologically Distinct and Nutritionally Unique, an article featuring research presented at the 2013 Mushrooms and Health Summit, presenting the biological and nutritional characteristics of mushrooms as fungi, was published in Nutrition Today. The article notes that with mushrooms’ nutrient and culinary characteristics, it may be time to re-evaluate food groupings and health benefits in the context of three separate food kingdoms: plants/ botany; animals/zoology and fungi/mycology.
• Participated in a Twitter party hosted by Fruits and Veggies – More Matters, that allowed the Council to share ways in which mushrooms add flavor and substance to family dishes for the Thanksgiving holiday.
  • Resulted in 1.8K+ tweets, 530K+ impressions and garnered 150+ unique participants
• Participated in a Twitter party hosted by the Mango Board and Fruits and Veggies – More Matter, where the Council demonstrated the versatility of mushrooms by sharing mango and general fruit inspired mushroom recipes.
  • Resulted in 3.2K+ tweets, 1.6M+ impressions and garnered 220 unique participants
• The Mushroom Channel engaged with nine foodservice partners including Max and Erma’s, Lazy Dog Café, Gordon Beirsch Brewery Restaurant, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Ruby Tuesday’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Atlanta Bread Company, The Cheesecake Factory, IHop and Cracker Barrel.
• Three promoted Facebook posts included mushroom-centric food holidays, foodservice promotion and mushroom burger related food trends.
  • Resulted in nearly 5K likes, 700+ shares, 1.7K+ link clicks, reached 119K+ people and resulted in 0.16 cost per like and $5.78 cost per every 1K engagements
• The Mushroom Channel engaged with nine foodservice partners including Max and Erma’s, Lazy Dog Café, Gordon Beirsch Brewery Restaurant, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Ruby Tuesday’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Atlanta Bread Company, The Cheesecake Factory, IHop and Cracker Barrel.
• Three promoted Facebook posts included mushroom-centric food holidays, foodservice promotion and mushroom burger related food trends.
  • Resulted in nearly 5K likes, 700+ shares, 1.7K+ link clicks, reached 119K+ people and resulted in 0.16 cost per like and $5.78 cost per every 1K engagements

• Mushroom Channel published three, blogger recipes with 3.3K+ page views and accounted for 13 percent of all website referral traffic in November.
  • Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms recipe from Denise of “Chez Us”
  • Cheesy Mushroom Gourgeres recipe from Paula of “Bell’Alimento”
  • Burgundy Mushrooms from Robyn of “Add a Pinch”
• Search ad words accounted for 12.99 percent of total visits in November. Top performing paid keywords included: mushroom recipes, stuffed mushrooms and vitamin D foods.

 

ON THE HORIZON

• The winter nutrition newsletter dedicated to the blend will be distributed in December.

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

FOODSERVICE  SUMMARY

With The Blend at the forefront, this is a great way to end the year. With this report, we’ll provide a recap on several events and showcase some of the newest initiatives.

Epcot: As you may remember, The Council showcased The Blend at the 58-day Epcot Food and Wine Festival. More than 1.6 million people attended and were able to sample The Blend and a number of other mushroom dishes. The Blend was featured in the Africa kiosk that was right in the middle of the walkway around Epcot as well as on the main stage in demos by Disney chefs and Chef Jehangir Mehta. They demonstrated items like the Graffiti Burger, a Beef-Bella-Blue Burger with Red Cherry Chipotle Ketchup, Turkey-Mushroom-Kale-Wheatberry Meatballs, Tuna-Shiitake Sliders and Smoked Duck-Shiitake Potstickers with Grand Marnier Glaze.

Other items included dishes at 2 international kiosks so you could eat your way around the world with mushrooms as well as demos like Stir Fried Beef and Mushrooms at the Turf Club Bar and Grill, Mushroom-Tuna Tartar on the center stage and Chicken-Mushroom-Leek Brik. From the feedback, people were not only surprised, but wowed by The Blend and all other mushroom items.

Plate Magazine: In the summer’s Plate edition that featured Vegetables and Vegetarian cooking, Plate not only wrote about The Blend, but provided an advertorial because of a Chef’s Table that we sponsored. Based on 32 total vegetable ads, ours was the highest in terms of attention-getting, informative, believable, image-enhancing and will plan to take action. As such, it was one of the highest scoring ads in the magazine, a testament to the concept of The Blend.

Chain Restaurants Update: We have already reported on Olive Garden, Wendy’s and Checkers which have introduced new or re-introduced popular items. Those LTOs still continue to run with strong media support including TV, radio and billboards. Not to be outdone, and jumping on The Blend wagon is Pizza Hut (yes, that Pizza Hut) and Applebee’s. Pizza Hut has introduced their totally revamped Flavor of Now menu adding meatballs made with pork, beef, mushrooms and breadcrumbs. That Blended meatball is on at least 3 new pizzas including the Meatbrawl Pizza. Applebee’s launched their long-awaited All-In Burgers which smash mushrooms into ground meat—their version of The Blend and an interesting way to differentiate themselves.

As you might expect based on the results this year, 2015 promises to be better than ever.

 

SCHOOL NUTRITION SUMMARY

• Mushroom Council served mushroom blended samples at the California and New York School Nutrition Association State conferences. Council representatives met with Farm to School coordinators in New York to plan for 2015.
• A group of foodservice directors from North Eastern Tennessee district co-op toured Monterey Mushroom’s farm in Loudon, TN. During the tour they learned the mushroom growing process as well as tips for including the mushroom blend into their meal plans.
• Two mushroom blended entrees were tested in Worcester Public Schools, the second largest district in Massachusetts. Initial response is good and recipes will be added to the menu cycle in the spring.
• JTM added a mushroom blended Turkey products including a burger, sausage and chili to their product offering joining the seven beef blended products.
• Phase 1 of the Johns Hopkins test of the mushroom blend in Baltimore City Public Schools took place before Thanksgiving. A total of 37 students (2nd through 8th graders) completed the taste test, and data is currently being analyzed. The next study date is Tuesday, December 16th, were the beef burgers on the cafeteria line at Hampstead Hill Academy. January 8th they will test the blend burger versus another lunch item and January 26th they will test the blend burger versus the beef burger.
• Farm to school posters and window clings were developed for Philadelphia Public Schools for a mushroom promotion in January.
• Council School Nutrition resources can be found here.

 

RETAIL SUMMARY

The Topline report week ending 11/02/14 was sent to the industry on 12/22/14; click here to access the report online.
Topline Retail Report – Highlights – (4 and 52 Weeks Ending 11/02/2014)

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

• The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +4.3% outpaced Total Produce’s growth of +3.3% by +1.0 point
• California led in dollar growth rate at +6.9%, followed by Northeast at +6.5%
• On a Market basis, Sacramento posted strong dollar growth at +20.7% Jacksonville posted the largest decline, down -4.7%
• Total U.S. Organic dollar sales grew +19.3%, driven by California (+63.0%) which holds a 14.4% share of total Organic dollars
• Volume in pounds for Total U.S. increased +2.3% and California led the Regions with a volume increase of +8.9%. Plains declined -7.5%
• At the Market level, Philadelphia showed the largest increase in volume at +26.1%
• Total Organic volume increased +15.6%, driven by California (+95.1%) which holds a 10.9% share of total Organic volume

Segment/Variety – 4 Weeks

• Total U.S. dollar sales of the White segment increased +3.7% while Brown mushrooms exhibited growth of +3.8%
• Cremini mushrooms grew dollar sales +1.0% and Portabellas increased +10.3%
• On a Regional basis, White mushroom growth rates were up in all Regions except for Plains (-1.9%) and Great Lakes (flat). Midsouth posted the largest growth rate at +13.0%
• Brown mushrooms posted growth in four of eight regions. Midsouth dollars declined -6.3%, while dollars in Northeast grew +11.4%
• White segment dollars were down in 9 of 49 Markets with results ranging from growth of +32.0% in Charlotte to a decline of -6.8% in Jacksonville. In the Brown segment, 34 of 49 Markets posted strong gains, including Hartford/Springfield (+29.7%), New York (+22.6%) and Philadelphia (+22.5%)
• Total U.S. volume in pounds for the White segment was flat, while the Brown segment saw overall volume growth of +4.9%, driven by Portabella mushrooms, up +14.4%
• In the Brown segment, California led Regional volume growth at +14.6%. Midsouth declined -8.1%

Total Mushrooms – 52 Weeks

• The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +3.1% lagged Total Produce’s growth trend of +4.5% by -1.4 points
• South Central (9.1% dollar share) led the Regions with the top dollar sales trend of +5.5%. Northeast holds the largest dollar share (20.7%), but grew only +1.8%. All Regions posted gains
• Most Markets experienced dollar growth, notably Omaha (+10.2%), Houston (+9.5%) and Chicago (+8.3%)
• Total U.S. Organic dollar sales grew +30.3%, driven by West (+61.0%) which holds a 13.3% share of total Organic dollars
• Total U.S. mushroom volume in pounds grew +2.3%
• Six of eight Regions delivered volume growth, led by Midsouth at +5.2%. Plains and South Central were flat
• Only nine of 49 Markets saw downward volume trends, including Milwaukee (-3.4%) and Buffalo/Rochester (-3.1%)
• Organic volume increased +29.5%, driven by Great Lakes (+20.3%) which holds a 48.1% share of total Organic volume

Segment/Variety – 52 Weeks

• Total U.S. dollar sales for the White segment were flat, while California (+3.4%), Midsouth (+1.8%), and South Central (+2.8%) posted the only gains. In the Brown segment, dollar sales were up +6.7% in Total U.S.
• In the Brown segment, seven Regions posted positive trends
  • Total U.S. Brown segment dollar trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms, which hold a 32.5% dollar share of Browns and delivered sales growth of +16.7%
• At the Market level, dollar sales trends in the White segment ranged from an increase of +12.0% in Sacramento to a -4.1% decline in Toledo
• The Brown segment saw very strong dollar sales gains across 45 of 49 Markets, with Denver leading at +19.4%. Sacramento showed the largest decline of -18.1%
• Total U.S. volume in pounds of White mushrooms was flat, but growth was seen in Midsouth (+2.3%) and California (+1.3%)
• Total U.S. volume in pounds of Brown mushrooms grew +8.1%, led by Midsouth with growth of +12.3%
  • Total U.S. Brown segment volume growth trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms which have a 30.9% volume share of Browns and delivered volume growth of +24.4%
• As with dollars, the Market level volume trends for the White segment were mixed, with 12 Markets trending upward including Charlotte (+15.0%) and Omaha (+8.6%)
• The volume trend of Brown mushrooms fared better, with only three Markets trending downward. Sacramento (-19.1%) and Buffalo/Rochester (-5.5%) posted the largest losses
  • Strong volume growth in the Brown segment occurred in these Markets: Louisville (+22.4%), Grand Rapids (+21.8%) and Philadelphia (+18.1%)