Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | August 2021

Council Update

Meetings

Annual Industry Meeting:
September 8, 2021 @ 3:00pm eastern via Zoom. More information to follow at a later date.

Next Council Meeting:
September 9-10, 2021 – Zoom

Assessments in Arrears

Last April, the Council sent the industry a note which partly stated:

In this difficult and uncertain time, the Mushroom Council’s board of directors want to support our growers and shippers. If you are having a hard time making on-time payments to the Council, please give us a call so we can discuss how we might be able to assist.

As of July 1, 2021, the Council has elected to resume business as usual. The offer to ask USDA OGC (Office of General Council) for possible forgiveness of penalties and interest has expired. If you would like to be considered for P&I relief, you must bring your account current.

As a reminder, the current month’s assessments are due on the 15th of the following month.

For those who are in arrears, the Council has approved ways to bring your accounts current. The Council will contact those that this impacts to put a plan in place for catching up on past assessments.

It should be noted that all assessments for the month of July 2021 (due Aug 15) and going forward are due on the regular due dates. All payments made after July will be the payment of the plan agreed upon to catch up on past due amounts plus the normal assessment for the last calendar month.

For any questions, contact: [email protected]

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

Shipment Summary

To see current charts, click here.

The Month Ahead

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

Working with nutrition influencers of National Mushroom Month content.
Prepare for nutrition media event taking place in September. Mushroom Council presence will include a 30-minute Feed Your Immune System presentation and lunch.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

With school year 2021-2022 right around the corner, school nutrition professionals are preparing to feed students with new Universal Feeding waivers. Throughout August we will be promoting resources around Back to School and procurement. Wednesday, August 18th, we will be part of a Back to School webinar to share best practices with growers and producers for how to promote more mushroom purchasing with their school and child care customers. Please encourage your school nutrition community to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be notified of new recipes and resources!

Highlights from July

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

Contributed article to Retail Dietitians Business Alliance (RDBA) newsletter on 7/21/21.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

July was a fun-filled month with SNA’s Annual National Conference (ANC) and our second FFTV Episode airing on the 27th. Cincinnati Public Schools submitted two recipes, Jalapeno Bacon Burger and Roasted Mushrooms, Tomatoes and Broccoli, to win a label maker and 2,000 labels for their to-go program.

Metrics

Mushroom Channel

Blenditarian

Mushroom Council Impressions YOY

Hashtags

Monthly Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 5/16/2021

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

In the 4-weeks – Total Specialty mushrooms posted dollar and volume growth for the period
In the 52-weeks – Mushroom category continues to outpace Total Produce sales growth rate

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

Mushroom category dollar sales fell -15.4% for the period, while Total Produce decreased-3.8%
The dollar decline for total mushrooms was the result of a double-digit decrease in volume (-16.5%), while average price/lb. was relatively flat (+0.4%) at $4.26/lb.
All regions experienced dollar and volume declines. Plains saw the steepest decline at -18.1%
- On a market basis, Providence showed relatively flat dollar sales (-0.6%) vs. prior year, while all other markets showed declines
Conventional dollar sales dropped-14.6%, while Organic fell-21.1%

*IRI/FreshLook Data provided by Fusion Marketing

Click Here for the Full Topline Report