Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | December 2016

Council Update

The next Council meeting will take place on January 25-26, 2017 in San Diego, CA. If you would like to attend, please let us know so we can make sure you are accommodated.
Exemption Applications for 2017 have been mailed to those who are currently exempt. If you need an application, click here.
A call for nominations will be sent on February 1, 2017 for three positions on the Council for the 2018-2020 term. Positions are in Regions 1, 2 & 4.
The North American Mushroom Conference is June 21-23, 2017 in Quebec, Canada. Registration is open!

Shipment Summary

To see current charts, click here.

The Month Ahead

Creating a Blend Media Toolkit, including updated blended burger photography – available for member download by end of December.
Developing a new Blended Sausage Mushroom Stuffing recipe + video for holiday menus – scheduled to go live on MC channels Dec. 7 for re-sharing.
The Mushroom Council will be represented on a panel at the NY Produce Show along with Sysco, Compass, PF Chang and others to discuss The Blend and the James Beard Foundation partnership.
The Council is meeting and working closely with several foodservice management companies to roll-out The Blend after the first of the year through menu development and promotion opportunities resulting in increased mushroom sales.
The School Nutrition Foundation is presenting a webinar on mushrooms and the Blend as part of their Webinar Wednesday series. Register for the webinar titled “Blend It, Flip It, Top It, Wrap It, Stuff It, Customize It: Six Flavorful Strategies for Increasing Vegetable Consumption” today. The webinar will take place Wednesday, December 7th from 2:00 PM-3:15 PM EST. Join the webinar to learn more about how schools talk about mushrooms, the Blend and nutrition requirements to help grow your own school market sales.
The Mushroom Council is launching the Blend the Rules campaign to capture success stories of school districts using mushrooms and the Blend. The success stories will be promoted on social and traditional media to further increase Blend activation in the school nutrition segment. Encourage your local districts to participate and your produce distributors to share the contest with their school customers to increase campaign participation. Find the complete campaign toolkit here https://www.mushroomcouncil.org/school-nutrition and look out for more details in the coming weeks.
North State Grocers will be running a mushroom and meat promotion from December 7th through December 20th. Point of Sale signage will be displayed in both the produce and meat departments featuring the promotion. Package mushrooms will be displayed on meat counter. A QR code will be placed on signage linking back to the Mushroom Council’s Blend recipes web page. An estimated 2,000 to 2,500 units of 8 oz. sliced mushrooms are estimated to be sold. http://shopsavmor.com/

Highlights from November

Developed and shared a new Veggie Mushroom Gravy recipe + video for holiday menus – available now on MC channels for re-sharing. See video here.
Hugh Acheson and The Mushroom Council presented The Blend and The Blended Burger Project to the R&D directors of 35 chains at the Global Culinary Innovators Association meeting. These menu decision makers for your customers learned about the Blend while participating in a demo of Chef Hugh Acheson’s Blended Crimini-Lamb burger. The presentation has the potential for thousands of blend servings as chain decision makers become more familiar with the benefits of the Blend.
The Blend was featured at several different events including the University of Southern California’s The Blend on Gameday/Farm to Tailgate homecoming football game, Disney’s Rockin’ Burger Block Party and the World Championship of Food.
Weis Markets featured The Blend and an original recipe for Southwest Beef Mushroom Lettuce Wraps in their November/December issue of Healthy Bites Magazine, with a circulation of over 100,000. They also debuted a cooking video for the recipe on their YouTube channel.
Reasor’s sampled The Blend to 45 local high school students during an in-store cooking class and promoted The Blend to 10,000 participants at the Tulsa Run.

Upcoming Events

Mushroom Council will be attending and showcasing the Blend at the upcoming Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Kids Collaborative and School Food Focus National Gathering to dozens of major school nutrition directors resulting in the potential for thousands of new blend items to be added to school menus across the country.
Reserved booth space for the 2017 IDDBA (International Dairy-Deli- Bakery Association) Trade Show. The show takes place June 4th-6th , 2017 in Anaheim, CA. The show is attended by retail CEOs/VPs, department managers, category managers, Independent deli owners/operators. We will influence retail decision makers (outside of produce) and sample The Blend. Estimated 10,000 attendees. Those interested in attending the show can register at www.iddba.org/iddba-show/participate/register-to-attend beginning in January. For more information about the show, please visit www.iddba.org/iddba-show/dairy-deli-bake-seminar-expo/overview

Topline Report

Tracker Highlights from 10/2/2016

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy:

In the 4‐weeks – Organic mushrooms contribute 10% of mushroom sales, but 39% of incremental dollars
In the 52‐weeks – Nearly all markets post dollar growth for white mushrooms

Click here for the full report