Shipping Reports

Monthly Shipping Report | January 2015

January 29, 2015

COUNCIL UPDATE

  • The next Council meeting is May 13-14 in Nashville, TN. If you plan on attending, please email [email protected] so we can make sure you are accommodated.
  • Exempt Producers: 2014 exemption numbers will expire on December 31 and it is necessary to reapply for the 2015 calendar year. Applications, as a courtesy, will be mailed to those who were exempt this year. If you would like an application, they can be found online at mushroomcouncil.org or contact Cheryl at 408-432-7210 or [email protected]
  • Nominations: A call for nominations for 3-year terms beginning January 1, 2016 will be mailed no later than February 2, 2015. The regions with a position opening up are Region 2; PA (two positions) and Region 3 (one position). Please consider being a part of the Council.
    • USDA and the Mushroom Council encourage all eligible producers, including women, minorities and individuals with disabilities to participate in the nominations and seek nomination to serve on the Council.

 

SHIMPENT SUMMARY

First Handler Report October 2014

click to enlarge

To see current charts click here.

 

MARKETING SUMMARY

Mushroom Council Marketing Summary –December 2014

December 2014 Media Impressions

click to enlarge

 

Trade Media

  • The headline from the Council’s annual mushroom influencer survey that tracks attitude and awareness among health and nutritional professionals, is that the Council has increased the number of registered dietitians recommending mushroom to their clients to 74.5 percent; a 5 percent annual increase. The current recommendation rate is essentially double that of the inception of the Council’s influencer program in 2008.
  • nutrition-newsletterThe Mushroom Channel published three blogger recipes with 3.1K+ page views that accounted for 11 percent of all website referral traffic in December.
  • Search ad words accounted for 12.6 percent of total visits in December. Top performing paid keywords included: mushroom recipes, stuffed mushrooms and vitamin D foods.
  • The winter nutrition newsletter shared dedicated articles and science about the blend with more than 9,000 nutrition and health professionals, earning an open rate of 22.6 percent.
  • During the month of December, the Mushroom Channel engaged with four foodservice partners including Silver Dollar Diner, Outback Steakhouse, Big Bowl and Applebees.
  • The Produce for Better Health Foundation celebrated the Council’s “Swap It or Top It” recipe contest and winners in an email distribution to their public health media group.
  • twitter-party-sharon-palmerParticipated in a Twitter party hosted by Fruits and Veggies – Holiday Helpers, that allowed the Council to share the ways in which mushrooms can be used for the holidays.
    • Resulted in 120+ unique participants, 1.1K+ tweets and 420k+ impressions
  • Three promoted Facebook posts in December included content promoting mushroom-centric food holidays and foodservice promotion/mushroom burger-related food trends.
    • Resulted in 3.4K+ likes, 105+ shares, 800+ link clicks, reached 67K+ people and resulted in 0.20 cost per like and $5.73 cost per every 1K engagements

facebook-foodservice-social

  • Today’s Dietitian, the leading trade magazine for nutrition professionals, ran the Council’s “Meat, Meet Mushrooms” blend advertisements across the month of December.

todays-dietician-ad

December 14 Traffic

click to enlarge

For more detailed social analytics download the NEW Social Analytics Report here.

 

FOODSERVICE  SUMMARY

The new year kicked off with lots of activity focused around The Blend.

foodservice_UMASSColleges and Universities: The College segment was the earliest adopters of The Blend, and their interest remains high. The Council starts this year with an immersion at the University of Iowa where their staff will work with ours to create new Blend recipes. Later this year they not only will adopt The Blend in many of their ground meat products, but will run a promotion around blending mushrooms with meat. USC has its Executive Chef back on campus and he wants to ramp up work with The Blend. The Council will be working with their chefs at USC’s Culinary Challenge and in early February will kick off the second Mushroomapalooza. Plans are also in effect for Blend promotions at Penn State University and University of Massachusetts. Hawkeyes, Trojans, Nittany Lions and Minutemen… quite the combination.

Communicating Our Message: The Blend is on trend and once again this year, the concept is featured in a number of trend articles…. from Burger Business, the top burger blog in the industry, to McCormick, which included umami flavors like mushrooms in their prestigious flavor trends report. Knowing that the trend is continuing, the Council has been invited to speak at a number of forums to spread the word including Research Chefs Association SE meeting that attracts more than a hundred ingredient manufacturers and meat suppliers as a kick-off to the Southeast Poultry Assn. show. The Blend will also be on the agenda at the Midwest NACUFS regional meeting which reaches hundreds of Midwest-based universities and the Pacific NACUFS regional meeting.

foodservice_college-logos

Culinary Institute of America: The Council will be featuring the Blend at both Worlds of Flavor and Healthy Menus Collaborative. At Healthy Flavors, most of the largest chains in the country will see a demo of 3 Blend items done by the chef in charge of healthier menus at Bloomin’ Brands. At the Collaborative, these chains will see the progress being made with the Blend and will taste a number of commercialized mushroom-meat products.

foodservice-CommercialChain Restaurants Update: Pizza Hut’s blended mushroom-meat meatball pizzas are now being featured on TV as part of their Flavor of Now menu. Applebee’s is on TV with its new Pub Menu that features a Steak and Portabella dish at less than 400 calories. Wendy’s continues to run TV for its Bacon Portabella Melt, and Checkers/Rallys still features its successful Primetime Burger with mushrooms. A large regional chain is about to introduce a blended burger, and we will provide more information when we know the exact launch date.

As you might expect, based on the results this year, 2015 promises to be better than ever.

 

SCHOOL FOODSERVICE  SUMMARY

  • Pilots have been in the planning stages for several Q1 2015 school promotions including pilots in Philadelphia Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, Savanah Public Schools and Washington D.C. Public Schools. The different pilots will promote farm to school, speed scratch IQF blending, foodservice management company development and USDA blend products. All pilots will be turned into case studies and promoted across the school nutrition media.
  • A USDA webinar was presented by Council consultants Dayle Hayes and Malissa Marsden titled “Anatomy of a Standardized Recipe: Finding and Creating School Recipes for Success with USDA Foods” which featured mushrooms in many examples. The webinar is available on the USDA Food and Nutrition Service YouTube channel here.
  • Four mushroom blended entrees were tested in Worcester Public Schools, the second largest district in Massachusetts. Initial response is good and recipes will be added to the menu cycle in the spring.
  • Phase 2 of the Johns Hopkins test of the mushroom blend in Baltimore City Public Schools took place Tuesday, December 16th, where the beef burgers on the cafeteria line at Hampstead Hill Academy. On January 8th they will test the blend burger versus another lunch item and January 26th they will test the blend burger versus the beef burger.
  • Farm to school posters and window clings were developed for Philadelphia Public Schools for a mushroom promotion in January.
  • Council School Nutrition resources can be found here.

 

RETAIL SUMMARY

Retail Data 11/30/2014

click to enlarge

The Topline report week ending 11/30/14 was sent to the industry on 12/22/14; click here to access the report online.

Topline Retail Report – Highlights – (4 and 52 Weeks Ending 11/30/2014)

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

Retail_newsworthy-jAN

Total Mushrooms – 4 Weeks

  • retail_midsouth-dollarThe Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +2.5% lagged Total Produce’s growth of +3.3% by -0.8 point
  • Midsouth led in dollar growth rate at +6.5%, followed by California at +4.4%
  • On a Market basis, Philadelphia posted strong dollar growth of +12.8%. Chicago posted the largest decline, down -22.4%
  • Total U.S. Organic dollar sales grew +6.0%, driven by California (+64.8%) which holds an 18.1% share of total Organic dollars
  • Volume in pounds for Total U.S. increased +1.7% and California led the Regions with a volume increase of +7.5%. Great Lakes volume declined -3.7%
  • At the Market level, San Francisco showed the largest increase in volume at +12.4%
  • Total Organic volume declined -9.6%. Organic volume increased +83.0% in California (+83.0%) which holds a 15.1% share of total Organic volume

Segment/Variety – 4 Weeks

  • retail-4weeks_CaliforniaTotal U.S. dollar sales of the White segment were flat while Brown mushrooms exhibited growth of +4.9%
  • Cremini mushrooms grew dollar sales +2.7% and Portabellas increased +10.4%
  • On a Regional basis, White mushroom dollar sales were up in all Regions except for Great Lakes (-8.0%) and Southeast (-1.2%). Midsouth posted the largest growth rate at +12.4%
  • Brown mushrooms posted growth in five of eight regions. Midsouth dollars declined -4.6%, while dollars in California grew +16.4%
  • White segment dollars were down in 20 of 49 Markets with results ranging from an increase of +23.3% in Charlotte to a decline of -34.8% in Chicago. In the Brown segment, 35 of 49 Markets posted strong gains, including San Francisco (+23.3%), Philadelphia (+21.3%) and Detroit (+19.5%)
  • Total U.S. volume in pounds for the White segment was flat, while the Brown segment saw overall volume growth of +5.3%, driven by Cremini mushrooms, up +3.9%
  • In the Brown segment, California led Regional volume growth at +24.3%. Plains declined -7.7%

Total Mushrooms – 52 Weeks

  •  The Total U.S. dollar sales trend of +2.9% lagged Total Produce’s growth trend of +4.1% by -1.2 points
  • Most Markets experienced dollar growth, notably Omaha (+9.3%), Houston (+8.8%) and Charlotte (+6.6%)
  • Total U.S. mushroom volume in pounds grew +2.1%
  • South Central (9.1% dollar share) led the Regions with the top dollar sales trend of +4.8%. Northeast holds the largest dollar share (20.7%), but grew only +1.8%. All Regions posted gains
  • retail_total-52-wks-organicTotal U.S. Organic dollar sales grew +26.8%, driven by West (+50.9%) which holds a 13.5% share of total Organic dollars
  • Six of eight Regions delivered volume growth, led by Midsouth at +5.3%. South Central was flat while Plains declined -1.5%
  • Only nine of 49 Markets saw downward volume trends, including Milwaukee (-3.7%) and Buffalo/Rochester (-3.3%)
  • Organic volume increased +24.1%, driven by California (+65.5%) which holds a 9.2% share of total Organic volume

Segment/Variety – 52 Weeks

  • retail_seg-52wks-brownTotal U.S. dollar sales for the White segment were flat, while California (+2.8%), Midsouth (+2.8%), and South Central (+2.5%) posted the only gains. In the Brown segment, dollar sales were up +6.5% in Total U.S.
  • In the Brown segment, seven Regions posted positive trends
    • Total U.S. Brown segment dollar trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms, which hold a 32.6% dollar share of Browns and delivered sales growth of +15.3%
  • At the Market level, dollar sales trends in the White segment ranged from an increase of +10.1% in Sacramento to a -4.6% decline in Jacksonville
  • The Brown segment saw very strong dollar sales gains across 45 of 49 Markets, with Denver leading at +16.4%. Sacramento showed the largest decline of -15.5%
  • Total U.S. volume in pounds of White mushrooms was flat, but growth was seen in Midsouth (+3.1%) and California (+1.4%)
  • retail_seg-52wks-charlotteTotal U.S. volume in pounds of Brown mushrooms grew +7.9%, led by Midsouth with growth of +10.9%
    • Total U.S. Brown segment volume growth trends were driven by Portabella mushrooms which have a 31.0% volume share of Browns and delivered volume growth of +22.0%
  • As with dollars, the Market level volume trends for the White segment were mixed, with 13 Markets trending upward including Charlotte (+16.5%) and Raleigh/Greensboro (+9.1%)
  • The volume trend of Brown mushrooms fared better, with only Sacramento (-15.5%) and Buffalo/Rochester (-6.7%) trending downward.
    • Strong volume growth in the Brown segment occurred in these Markets: Philadelphia (+20.2%), Louisville (+19.1%) and Grand Rapids (+17.9%)

Comments are closed.

Foodservice
Media Placements
Promotions
Retail
Schools
Shipping Reports
Subscribe