Monthly Shipping and Marketing Report | November 2020

Council Update

The Council office has moved! Below is our new contact information. Reports & payments still go to the lockbox

Mushroom Council
200 NE Missouri Rd, Ste 200
Lee’s Summit, MO 64086
(816) 251-4512

Next Council meeting:
Scheduled as a Zoom meeting on February 18, 2021

Open Positions on the Council (2021-2023 term):
Ballots have been tabulated and background forms have been completed by those with the highest votes and pounds. The nomination package has been sent to USDA to have their names sent to the Secretary of Agriculture for possible appointment to the Council.

• Region 1 (All states except CA & PA) – one open position
• Region 2 (PA) – one open position
• Region 4 (Importers) – one open position

Shipment Summary

To see current charts, click here.

The Month Ahead

SCHOOL NUTRITION

• While this school year is quite different than years past, schools still have purchasing deadlines to adhere to, including USDA Foods allocations. In November we’ll be encouraging schools to divert allocations to Department of Defense (DoD) purchases. Follow Mushrooms in Schools on Facebook and Twitter for tips to share with customers, and an upcoming blog post explaining how schools can maximize their allocations this year with fresh mushrooms and DoD. Our goal is to continue to increase traffic to the website and ultimately increase fresh mushroom purchases for School Year 2021-2022.

Highlights from October

PUBLIC RELATIONS

• Whole Foods Market released their list of the top 10 food trends for 2021. Mushrooms received mention in the “Wellness Through Food”. The list was picked up by many outlets (The Kitchn, Real Simple, EatingWell, Yahoo!), including Forbes, which included blended foods as a trend, with nod to the Council and James Beard Foundation’s “blended burger success.”
• Many consumer-facing outlets published mushroom-centric recipe roundup throughout the month, including:27 Healthy Mushroom Recipes That Put the Fun in Fungi – Bon Appetit, Yahoo!
• 61 Mushroom Recipes That’ll Get More Umami Into Your Life – Epicurious, Yahoo!
• 35 Stuffed Mushroom Recipes That Will Win You All the Holiday Appetizer Awards – Parade

DIGITAL

• For National Farmers’ Day on October 12, Mushroom Council spotlighted four growers throughout the day. Each grower (all based in different regions) shared photos and quotes about why they love working in the mushroom industry. Fans shared their “thanks” in comments and reshared the posts across different social media channels. View the posts here:
  • LinkedIn:
    • https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6721463647740289024 
  • Facebook:
    • https://www.facebook.com/MushroomCouncil/posts/10160303113942598
    • https://www.facebook.com/MushroomCouncil/posts/10160303187967598 
    • https://www.facebook.com/MushroomCouncil/posts/10160303125912598 
    • https://www.facebook.com/MushroomCouncil/posts/10160303117192598 
  • Instagram:
    • https://www.instagram.com/p/CGP794Al1C9/
    • https://www.instagram.com/p/CGQjD1ZlyJg/  
    • https://www.instagram.com/p/CGQUopxlDoF/ 
    • https://www.instagram.com/p/CGQHsnllIMV/ 
  • Twitter:
    • https://twitter.com/MushroomCouncil/status/1315673947229175809
    • https://twitter.com/MushroomCouncil/status/1315759148299161600 
    • https://twitter.com/MushroomCouncil/status/1315728950925041664  
    • https://twitter.com/MushroomCouncil/status/1315698755174199296 

NUTRITION

• The Council launched an online curriculum for retail dietitians via a partnership with the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance. Dietitians that go through the hour-long learning module will earn CPE credits from the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics (AND).
• In addition, the Council exhibited at the AND Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, October 18-20. Participation includes a virtual expo booth that included live culinary demos daily with Pam Smith, RD and mushroom trivia. Follow up with attendees currently underway.

SCHOOL NUTRITION

• October is Farm to School Month, and Mushrooms in Schools focused our advertising, social media, and published website content on promoting local mushrooms in school meals. So far, we’ve seen a 23% increase in traffic to the Farm to School page, and 47% increase to all Mushrooms in School website pages, compared to the previous month.

Sales Materials

• Mushrooms in Schools created new marketing materials to assist schools in celebrating local mushrooms in school meals, including a Farm to School fact sheet for parents, social media graphics, and sample Tweets, available for download here. Please share with your customers and sales teams, and use the materials yourself!

Metrics

Mushroom Channel

Blenditarian

Hashtags

Special Campaigns

Monthly Topline Report

Tracker Highlights – Period ending 08/09/2020

• Download the Highlights (4 & 52 Weeks) Report
• Download the Graphic Highlights Report

Spotlight – Notable and Newsworthy

• In the 4-weeks – All regions displayed double-digit dollar and volume growth rates
• In the 52-weeks – Recent 4-week sales strengthened 52-week growth for all markets and regions

• Mushroom category continued to soar with a total dollar sales gain of +23.5%. This positioned mushrooms 13.5 points above total produce
• Dollar growth was driven by volume (+19.9%) and average price/lb. (+3.0%)
• All regions experienced double-digit increases in dollar sales, led by California (+33.0%)
  • Nearly all markets showed double-digit dollar gains, led by Los Angeles at +42.3%
• Conventional and Organic mushroom sales continued to grow this period. Conventional dollar sales added +$19.0M (+24.2%) and contributed 89.0% of dollar growth, while Organic dollar sales increased +$2.3M (+19.1%)

*IRI/FreshLook Data provided by Fusion Marketing