Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | September 2024

Council Update

Council Meeting: The next Council meeting will be held on Thursday, September 5that the Hilton Garden Inn, Kennett Square, PA. If you are interestedin attending the Council meeting, please let us know so we can besure you are accommodated.

Mushroom Council Names Amy Wood Its New President

LEE’S SUMMIT, MISSOURI – (August, 2024) – The Mushroom Council has named produce marketing strategist Amy Wood its new President & CEO.

Wood assumed the role this month after the Mushroom Council conducted an exhaustive national search following the planned transition of prior President Bart Minor, who had led the Council for 26 years.

Wood will be responsible for developing and overseeing strategic marketing, communication, research and promotion programs designed to bring profitable returns to U.S. mushroom farms and importers by increasing awareness and consumption of fresh mushrooms.

Wood brings more than two decades of food marketing and communications expertise to this critical position, with a heavy emphasis on produce marketing.

She most recently was Senior Vice President, Food Strategy at integrated food and agriculture marketing communications agency Curious Plot, which has represented the Mushroom Council for the past nine years.

While at the agency, Wood led planning and strategy for such Mushroom Council initiatives as the Blended Burger Project, Feed Your Immune System, Mushroom Monday and more. She represented additional clients including California Avocado Commission, National Watermelon Promotion Board and Sun World International. Wood has also served on the leadership boards of the Northwest Cider Association and Pear Bureau Northwest’s Fresh Pear Committee.

“Amy is a true food marketing strategist and leader who not only is ready to go on day one because of her near decade of immersion in the mushroom industry, but also because of her vast background leading and counseling marketing teams for dozens of commodity boards and organizations,” said Michael Stephan, Chairman of the Mushroom Council.

Like so many other commodity boards and associations, the mushroom industry finds itself at the critical intersection of maintaining its loyal customer base while expanding and attracting new shoppers,” said Wood. “I look forward to the challenge ahead.”

Shipment Summary

Download Current Charts

Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 07/14/2024

The first half of the year is on the books. As of this July 14th report, the Mushroom Council has upgraded its contract with Circana to have the largest market coverage available.
Our fresh mushroom retail coverage expanded by 14.8% to annual sales of $1.53 billion through the inclusion of food, club, online and other retailers who were not previously included nor projected in the data.
Several of these retailers were ones who gained business during the past few years, changing not only the size of the retail universe measured but also the trajectory.
With the added data, mushroom trends more closely follow the overall food and beverage trends with sales levels that remain above the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline. Other trends, such as organic, value-added, seasonal growth and contraction and pack sizes continued to hold up. All historic data points in the spreadsheet and PowerPoint have been upgraded to MULO+.
A few of the top trends of the latest 52 weeks:
- In MULO+, white mushrooms represented slightly less than half of dollar sales, though 56.1% of pounds.
- Crimini mushrooms had above-average performance, but were down compared to last year as well in both dollars and pounds.
- Specialty mushroom sales continued to grow, reflecting 6.6% of total sales in the MULO+ universe.
- The current seventh quad-week of the year was down 4.1% over quad-week six. Demand typically starts to turn positive in quad-week nine.
- Eight-ounce packages outperformed 16-ounce packages and the sales of whole mushrooms did better than sliced.

Download your copy of the quick two-page summary, the plug and play PowerPoint ready for use, and the in-depth Excel data file.

Retail Tracker 07/14/2024

Sales Review 07/14/2024

Retail Performance 07/14/2024

Channel Highlights

CONSUMER

August

The Mushroom Monday campaign continued:

MM Influencers have posted throughout the month
- Iheartumami
- Healthysimpleyum
- Meikoandthedish
- Brandyn Baker
- Nzinga Young
Tik Tok Video Ads that highlight mushrooms with a hint at ASMR, an extremely popular genre of content on TikTok.

September

The Mushroom Monday campaign will continue throughout National Mushroom Month:

MM Influencers will post throughout the month
RD influencer Veggiesandchocolate will launch a series of 3 recipe videos for Mushroom Monday
Tik Tok Video Ads that highlight mushrooms using ASMR, an extremely popular genre of content on TikTok.
- Ending in early September

MUSHROOMS IN SCHOOLS

We encourage other channels to amplify Mushrooms in Schools by sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter.
Shareable Data:
- Mushrooms in Schools will be attending the National Association for Family Child Care Conference, where we will have to opportunity to speak with operators and share our resources. Mushrooms in Schools has recipes, resources, and marketing materials for schools and day care centers to engage students this month.
- Mushrooms in Schools is launching the second round of our Kids Eat Mushrooms, Too! Recipe Contest. This launch is targeted for our audience working in schools. Visit our website to share out this contest.
Tools to Use:
- Mushrooms in Schools has many nutrition education resources for all age ranges of children. Our latest resources available to our audience are our Early Childhood Lesson Plans full of activities, plug and play lesson plans, and much more! Use our website to easily access these free resources.

August:

Prepare for K12 Recipe Contest for Audience
Prepare for Announcing CACFP Recipe Contest Winners
Provide Resources on Incorporating Mushrooms into Child Nutrition Meals
- Highlight Schools that Incorporate mushrooms on their menu
- Attend NAFCC Conference
- Release Early Childhood Lesson Plans

September:

Prepare to Close K12 Recipe Contest
Finalize the Recipe Contest for CACFP
Highlight Mushrooms in Schools resources and the Recipe Contest for CACFP Audience as well as K12 with a focus on National Mushroom Month

Marketing Summary

Notable Impressions Highlights

July:

The Lion’s mane crab cake pin drove 21K organic impressions last month on Pinterest. It’s been slowly gaining organic traction since mid-April. There is a trend of vegan/veg alternatives to meat dishes performing well.
The ads and posts that resonated best for traffic were the ChickenMarsala, Grilled Recipes Carousel ad and the Beef & Broccoli recipe.
6 Mushroom Monday influencers posted in July, garnering 167k views across Instagram and TikTok
The Grilling Tips and Chicken Marsala recipe were the top performers for engagement this month.

*YouTube engagement metrics have changed. Digital metrics are constantly evolving, so we created our own updated Engagement metrics (comments + shares + likes + dislikes + subscribers lost + subscribers gained)