Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | February 2022

Council Update

Exemption Applications: The exemption applications for the 2022 calendar year will be mailed to those who are currently exempt. If you do not receive an application and would like to apply for an exemption, please email [email protected].

Next Council meeting – February 10-11, 2022 – Dallas, TX

Open Positions on the Council (2023-2025 term):
A call for nominations will be sent on or about February 1, 2022, for three open positions on the Council for the 2023-2025 term.

Region 1 (All states except CA & PA) – two open positions
Region 2 (PA) – one open position

Mushroom growers have ideas, skills, experiences and perspectives that would benefit the industry; be a voice for your industry by becoming part of the Council.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Mushroom Council encourage all eligible producers, including women, minorities and individuals with disabilities to participate and seek nomination.

Shipment Summary

To see current charts, click here.

The Month Ahead

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

Mushroom Council will begin preparation for April activations with both Produce for Better Health Foundation and the RDBA Virtual Experience.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

In February, Mushroom in Schools will be focusing on culinary techniques to increase mushroom usage in schools. With the focus on culinary skills, Mushrooms in Schools plans to provide short videos, recipes, and tips/tricks to our audience via website, newsletter, blog, and social media. You can support Mushrooms in Schools by following our Twitter and Facebook accounts and elevating our social posts.

Highlights from January

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

Mushroom Council partnered with Patricia Bannan, RD to promote her book, “From Burnout to Balance: 60+ Healing Recipes and Simple Strategies to Boost Mood, Immunity, Focus, and Sleep.” Mushrooms are highlighted in the book and media tour as an important food for immunity and focus. The media tour included 16 local TV segments, 3 nationally syndicated TV segments, 2 national radio segments and an audio news release. View several of the segments below:
- Richmond – starts at 3:38
- Miami – starts at 1:58
- Tampa – starts at 2:25
- Daytime – starts at 1:45
Mushroom Council also collaborated with dietitians Katherine Brooking and Julie Upton on a broadcast media tour where mushrooms were featured by the dietitians as a top Mediterranean Diet pick. The tour included more than 500 airings in 190+ media markets were secured via nationally syndicated news and entertainment programs, Daytime and Newswatch.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

In January, Mushrooms in Schools hosted an Innovative Session at the School Nutrition Industry Conference for food service directors. In addition to the Innovative Session, we also provided participants the opportunity to learn more about Mushrooms in Schools at the Tabletop Industry Booth Network Session. Additionally, we elevated Feed Your Immune System on social media, newsletters, and our blog. Several school districts have highlighted mushrooms in their recipes by tagging us on social media. We encourage you to amplify their work by sharing these Facebook posts: Turkey Marsala, Mushroom & Swiss Burger, and Burger Station.

Sales Materials

SCHOOL NUTRITION

Mushrooms in Schools created a Mushroom Sourcing Catalog, which can be found at our website. We encourage you to share on your own social channels and encourage your sales teams to share with your school foodservice clients and contacts.

Metrics

Annual Impressions

Overall social/digital impressions decreased due to a shift in the budget toward special campaigns and activities, including:

Feed Your Immune System launch in 2021 (20M impressions)
Media partner switch from Bon Appetit (21.2M impressions) to Food Network (94MM+ impressions).

Notable Impressions Highlights:

April Facebook, Twitter and Instagram impressions increased due to Earth Month promotions.
June Facebook and Instagram impressions increased due to Food Network/Blended Burger Contest promotions.
September impressions increased across the board due to Mushroom Month promotions.
In Q4, we hit pause on major campaigns and big ad pushes, however as we entered cold and flu season, Mushroom Council channels began to feature “feed your immune system” content as we ramped up for our big Q1 campaign push. Additional themes and content included recaps and throwbacks of the “best of 2021” recipes and blogs, as well as holiday meals inspiration and tips.
- We saw a 96% increase in our Pinterest impressions due to increased holiday recipe interest.

Notable Engagement Highlights:

In July, YouTube views increased considerably due to the pre-roll video ad (“Value of The Blend”) showcasing how The Blend can he
In September we saw increases in enewsletter clicks and social engagements were due to our Mushroom Month promotions (weekly enewsletters and daily social interactions).

Special Campaign Impressions
Includes paid promotions, partnerships and advertising activities.

Monthly Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 12/26/2021

Dollars, Units and Volume Performance

December 2021 was a big month for fresh produce, reaching $5.2 billion in sales, up 6.5% over December 2020. However, dollar sales were boosted by significant inflation and volume could not reach prior-year levels, at -4.0%. Vegetable volume sales were down even more, -6.4% in December 2021 versus year ago.
Mushrooms were among the top-performing produce categories in December 2020, creating a very difficult path to growth in 2021. Dollars dropped 6.2% year-over-year in December and volume declined 9.6%. However, 2021 dollar sales exceeded the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 11.1% and volume by 3.9%. This illustrates that demand is still strong compared to normal.

Fresh mushroom sales were highest during the final week of the year, reaching $31.9 million. This was up 0.7% versus year-ago levels. Three out of the four weeks also gained versus their December 2019 totals. The only week that did not was the week before the holiday, ending December 19.

Inflation

The total produce performance was heavily impacted by inflation in December 2021. Prices for vegetables increased to an average of $1.84 per pound, up 7.9% versus year ago. The average price per pound for fruit increased to $1.74, up 14.7% versus December 2020.
December increases in the price per unit and the price per pound for mushrooms was far below average. The average price per unit for fresh mushrooms increased 4.0% in December 2021 vs. YA, to $2.84. The volume price increase was similar. Fresh mushroom December dollar and pounds were much less promoted. Down by about one-third, only 10.1% of December mushroom dollars happened while on promotion.

Performance by segment

Regular white button mushrooms represent 52.8% of total fresh mushroom sales and 59.7% of pounds in December 2021. Crimini/brown mushrooms are the second-largest segment, representing 30.5% of dollars.
The overall decline in fresh mushroom December sales on a year-on-year comparison is driven by declines in virtually all sellers. It is unclear how much lack of availability due to supply chain challenges throughout the food chain factored into the sales numbers.

Additional observations:

Fixed versus random weight performance: The vast majority of fresh mushroom dollars and pounds were fixed weight in December 2021 and just like in the total fresh produce, fixed weight (-5.0% in $ December sales) performed better than random weight (-19.0%).
Organic versus conventional: Organic dollar sales made up 12.9% of total fresh mushroom sales in December 2021. Organic mushrooms had a slightly better performance, +0.4% year-on-year versus -6.6% for conventional.
Cut/prepared versus whole mushrooms: Cut or prepared mushrooms made up 51.9% of dollar sales in December 2021. Mushrooms without preparation had the better performance in December. Cut/prepared mushrooms were down 6.9% in dollars and 9.7% in volume. Whole mushrooms were down 4.4% in dollars and 9.3% in volume.

IRI, Integrated Fresh, MULO, 52 weeks ending 12/26/2021

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