Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | May 2021

Council Update

Next Council Meeting:
Scheduled as a Zoom meeting on June 17-18, 2021

Open Positions on the Council (2022-2024 term):

URGENT: Region 3 (California) needs one more nominee

A call for nominations opened on February 1 for three open positions on the Council for the 2022-2024 term. There needs to be two nominees for each open position. We only have one nominee for Region 3 (California) and need one more to close the nominations. Please submit your completed nomination form to [email protected].

Region 2 (PA) – two open positions
Region 3 (CA) – 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 encourages 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’s® 2021 partnership with Food Network launches May 3 with the third annual “Blended Burger Contest.” You can support the campaign by:
- Encouraging customers (consumers and distributors) to enter original blended burger recipes at FoodNetwork.com/blendedburgercontest.
- Pick up the June Issue of Food Network Magazine (on newsstands May 18) which includes a centerfold spread of a blended burger + a recipe booklet featuring mushroom/blended recipes.
- Engage with Food Network social media posts featuring Kardea Brown’s blended burger recipe video.
In partnership with Produce for Better Heath, the Council is launching a Feed Your Immune System signage campaign targeted toward retail dietitians. This was teased during the retail dietitian cook along last month, and there is already interest from a few retailers in using the signage in-store.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

On Friday, May 7, Mushrooms In Schools will participate in National School Lunch Hero Day and share a success story from Pennsylvania on our Facebook page. Also happening this month, a food literacy-themed blog post, and be on the lookout for a fun Facebook Live with a special guest. Please encourage your school nutrition community to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be notified of new events and resources!

Highlights from April

PUBLIC RELATIONS & DIGITAL

The Council distributed a syndicated article focused on mushroom sustainability and The Blend. To date, the article has received 988 online placements, earning 202,621,307 impressions. Read more on the Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune or Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Council’s activities and refreshed resources for Earth Month were shared by the trades, including The Packer, Produce Blue Book and FreshPlaza. View the revamped sustainability page on the website.
For Day of the Mushroom (April 16), mushroom lovers were excited to share their favorite mushroom varieties with us on Facebook. Read what Facebook fans had to say (and share your own favorite) here.

FOODSERVICE

A suite of new foodservice focus kits have been created, including Sustainability, Immunity, The Blend, Consumer Demand and All About Mushrooms. Find them all the Foodservice page of the website.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

In April, Mushrooms in Schools participated in the National CACFP Sponsors Association Conference as an exhibitor and conference speaker. We published two recipes for CACFP providers, published a blog post on fun mushroom facts perfect for sharing with your foodservice staff as well as students, and created a mushroom sustainability infographic in honor of Earth Day. Please share these resources – and MushroomsInSchools.Com – with your network!

Metrics

Mushroom Channel

Blenditarian

Mushroom Council Impressions YOY

Hashtags

Monthly Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 2/21/2021

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

In the 4 weeks – Every mushroom segment contributed to double-digit category volume growth
In the 52 weeks – All fifty markets saw dollar and volume increases in mushroom sales

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

Mushroom category dollar sales continued to show double-digit growth at +13.1% for the period, outpacing Total Produce by +5.4 points
Dollar growth was driven by increases in volume (+10.5%) and average price/lb. (+2.4%)
All regions experienced dollar sales growth, led by Northeast (+18.7%)
- Northeast saw the highest incremental sales growth at +$3.8M
- All markets except Houston, New Orleans, and Tampa saw dollar gains. Grand Rapids led the markets in growth rate at +26.3%
Dollar sales of Conventional mushrooms added +$12.9M (+13.6%), while Organic sales rose +$1.4M (+9.6%)

*IRI/FreshLook Data provided by Fusion Marketing

Click Here for the Full Topline Report