May 2010 Industry News

Are You Going Pink for Profit?

The Mushroom Council is partnering with City of Hope for a second year in a row to promote mushrooms and cancer research during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During last year’s pink campaign, the mushroom industry saw record high sales in October 2009 with mushroom receipts having climbed 6.7 percent in dollar volume and 12.3 percent in pound volume, according to FreshLook Marketing. It appears that consumers have spoken and that going pink can lead to increased sales. Sales kits will be delivered soon to the industry. To get started, please contact the Council at (408) 432-7210 or info@mushroomcouncil.org.

SHIPMENT SUMMARY

Mushroom Council First Handler Reports (millions of pounds; totals may not match due to rounding).

Current Charts	Feb-10	Feb-09	% change	YTD 10	YTD 09	% change
Total Shipments	58.69	56.04	4.73	121.29	116.37	4.23
Domestic Shipments	51.48	49.75	3.49	106.17	102.11	3.97
PA	31.08	29.63	4.90	64.85	60.97	6.36
CA	8.88	8.98	-1.17	17.77	18.43	-3.61
Rest of US	11.52	11.13	3.50	23.56	22.71	3.73
Imports	7.21	6.29	14.59	15.12	14.26	6.04

COUNCIL UPDATE

Nominations have ended for terms beginning January 1, 2011. Ballots will be mailed on June 1^st. Please return you ballot by the June 30^th deadline.

If you have not yet placed your order for truck panels and would like to do so, please complete the order form and fax into the Council office. To see the artwork click here, to see the style guide click here.

If you are a handler and complete handler reports you need to become “certified” through the Council. If you have not yet been certified, please contact the Council office and arrange your certification with Cheryl.

The 2009 Annual Report has been posted to the council website; you can find it by clicking here.

To see the May issue of the Mushrooms and Health Global Initiative Bulletin, click here.

MARKETING SUMMARY

TOTAL IMPRESSIONS/PLACEMENTS TO DATE:

April impressions overview:

Program	April 2010 Impressions	% of April 2009 Impressions	Total Year Impressions to Date	% of Annual Goal
Consumer/Nutrition	60,537,072	42%	325,741,669	59%
Foodservice	184,000	29%	2,464,992	65%
Retail	225,191	99%	966,660	58%

          In April, the Mushroom Council had an average of 56 percent share of voice. While
          conducting proactive media outreach, we generally expect Mushroom Council coverage to
          represent between 33-75 percent of mushroom placements, according to average
          consumer product and commodity industry standards. Note that there are always external
          factors or industry forces that could change that metric.

Mushroom Share of Voice:

Week Ending	Mushroom Council Generated Placements	% of Total Mushroom Coverage**	Type of Outreach
April 10*	20	77 percent	Proactive
April 17	24	60 percent	Proactive
April 24	2	14 percent	Proactive
April 30	6	46 percent	Proactive
Total	52	56 percent	Proactive

*This time period includes coverage secured on April 1-3 as well.
**This does not include mushroom recipe coverage that is not Council-generated.

Foodservice Sales Training:

The Council is gearing up for the two June Foodservice Sales Training events. The Mushroom Council has partnered with the Culinary Institute of America to put together a comprehensive two-day foodservice sales training seminar on both of their campuses; in St. Helena, CA June 7-8 and Hyde Park, NY June 28-29. The seminars will help your sales staff sell mushrooms, and offer hands-on examples of how growers can use training concepts and execute them with customers and distributors. Growers will also receive comprehensive, detailed training kits. If you have not already, please e-mail Cheryl at Cheryl@mushroomcouncil.org if you plan to attend. There is no charge to attend besides travel and lodging expenses.

March 2010 Sales:

The first quarter of 2010 showed continued growth for the mushroom category with sales up 5.9 percent in dollars and 8 percent in pounds according to FreshLook Marketing, period ending March 28, 2010. In the month of March alone, mushroom tonnage was up by 8 percent.

Mushrooms in the News and Online:

The Council held a strong presence in national consumer magazines throughout the month of April, securing nearly 23.6 million impressions. Highlights included Men’s Health and Taste of Home, which touted numerous health qualities of mushrooms, including recognition as a food that is low in sodium, calories and fat; and a source of selenium, potassium, B vitamins, and protein.

Opportunistic and proactive media outreach has resulted in the opportunity for Council president, Bart Minor, to interview with several short-lead publications throughout April, including the Chicago Tribune and Daily Gazette. The Chicago Tribune article discussed specialty mushroom varieties, and the Daily Gazette focused on the versatility of mushrooms and their health benefits, including vitamin D and antioxidants. These interviews, including the additional outlet pick-up from Chicago Tribune, generated more than 8 million impressions in both print and online outlets.

The Council kicked off its PP2 partnership with Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D researcher and author of the April-released The Vitamin D Solution,to educate consumers about the connection between vitamin D and mushrooms. In addition to media interviews (including New York Times Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and Reuters, to date), Holick is also presenting mushroom and vitamin D research at leading health and nutrition conventions nationwide. This past month he attended annual meetings for Experimental Biology, the American College of Physicians and state dietetic associations in Tennessee and Washington, among others. To date, Holick has reached more than 3,360 health influencers.

The Council joined the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) as a Sustaining Member for 2010. ASN is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together the world's top researchers, clinical nutritionists and industry to advance our knowledge and application of nutrition for the sake of humans and animals. This announcement was made in the ASN Member Newsletter sent to ASN’s 4,000 members on April 8. The Council also sponsored and provided three ads for one issue of Nutrition Notes Daily, an ASN publication distributed to 3,000 members during the Experimental Biology conference.

The 2010 Today’s Dietitian survey was released this month, intended to measure the level of knowledge this select audience of registered dietitians (RD’s) has about mushrooms, and how they position mushrooms to their clients. The survey was taken by more than 1,800 RD’s. The number of RD’s reporting that they recommend mushrooms to their clients increased 8 percent from 2009 to 2010 and 16 percent from 2008 to 2010; and 15 percent of RD’s surveyed reported that they recommend mushrooms as a food source of vitamin D.

In April, the second-annual “Mushrooms: Every Day, Every Way” recipe contest with Taste of Home generated approximately 250 additional contest entries, bringing the grand total to 565 entries, to date. This is a 20 percent increase over last year (approximately 470 entries were received at this point in the 2009 partnership). The contest runs until August 1, 2010 and winners will be announced during National Mushroom Month. Local media coverage of the partnership generated nearly 18.6 million impressions across print, radio and online channels this month. Encourage your family and friends to visit the contest and share details with others to help spread the word. (Note: Council members and their families are ineligible for the competition.)

Mushroom Council placements represented an average of 56 percent of total mushroom news, which is within the norm of 33 to 75 percent during a period of proactive outreach. To view all April placements, click here.

In April, MushroomInfo.com and MushroomChannel.com experienced a combined total of 14,930 unique visitors, a 14% increase compared to March’s 13,065 total unique visitors. MushroomInfo.com underwent a facelift, launched publically on April 23, to increase utility and functionality for all users.

Twitter and Mushroom Channel subscriber numbers continue to rise at a steady rate. The Council has 1,678 Twitter followers and Facebook “likes” (formerly known as “fans”), to date. Obtaining these followers resulted in 781,851 total online exposures in April, a 161% increase over March’s total of 298,842. Some of the latest top influencers to follow the Mushroom Channel include Health Magazine, the Food Network and the Los Angeles Times food section. To see the Council’s top 100 followers, click here.

A call for Mushroom Channel contributors was posted to the Channel on April 16. The 16 bloggers who applied were evaluated on their previous blog content about mushrooms and their ability to engage readers through interesting food articles and compelling photographs. The applicant field was narrowed down ten finalists who’ll be posting regularly throughout the year. To promote the new contributors and their upcoming posts, the Council tweeted about the contributor finalists, which led to 12 interactions and 15 new followers in just a few hours.

On the Retail and Foodservice Front:

Mushrooms were featured in Natural Products Marketplace for their immune boosting nutrients and in Acres USA as the only fruit or vegetable to contain vitamin D. Produce Business highlighted the growing popularity of mushrooms on restaurant menus, while The Packer addressed fresh vegetable sales in 2009. These combined placements resulted in 225,191 impressions for the month of April.

As the industry prepares to go pink this fall in partnership with City of Hope for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Council worked to develop pink sales kit materials including a how-to checklist for getting started, sell sheet, City of Hope retailer overview, POS materials, nutrition collateral pieces and recipes. Additionally, an online sales training webinar was set-up for May. To access the online version of the pink sales kit, click here.

The Council pursues editorial opportunities on an ongoing basis to promote mushrooms with various trade publications. Please share with us any news or information from your region for the following upcoming opportunities:

Foodservice media outreach resulted in an article in Pizza Marketing Quarterly featuring a Council recipe and photo of a beef and mushroom pizza. In addition, National Culinary Review included Origami Sea Bass with Shiitake Mushrooms from Chef Yeo of Straight’s Restaurant, highlighting mushrooms as a perfect complement to seafood dishes.

To see new mushroom menu items for April, click here.

For a more detailed report click here (most recent Mushrooms Top Line report).
For larger image, click here.