Talking mushrooms with To-Jo Mushrooms

To-Jo Mushrooms always looks forward to participating in the New York Produce Show & Conference.

“Our sales team will not only be on the trade show floor, but plan attending the opening reception and education sessions,” said Kevin M. Delaney, vice president of sales and marketing for the Avondale, PA-based company. “We get a lot of value out of this conference as it is the closest trade show to home.”

To-Jo Mushrooms will be exhibiting at booth No. 433, where it will be showcasing both retail and foodservice product. In addition to fresh mushrooms, the booth will offer a line of its quick blanched mushrooms that are a great extended shelf life item for pizza and burger chains.

In attendance will be company owners, Tony and Joe D’Amico, and national account executives, Samantha Snyder and John Cunningham. The company sees the show as a great way to hear about what’s happening in the industry.

“Anytime our industry gets together, there is a chance to learn about upcoming trends or about challenges that are on the horizon,” Delaney said. “We will be right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which are two major holidays for mushrooms. 2021 and 2022 have been dynamic years in terms of demand. It will be interesting to discuss with buyers how demand is shaping up this season compared to pre-pandemic numbers.”

To-Jo Mushrooms’ company culture is collaborative in nature, so when it comes to trade shows, it collects input from many teams in the organization.

“Although the sales team is the most active at tradeshows, we couldn’t get it all done without the help from our operations and growing teams,” Delaney said. “Our team considers a show successful when we walk away learning something new. Whether we pick up something new from the education sessions or from talking to our friends on the show floor, we always want to gain more knowledge as a team and as a company.”

This year marked To-Jo Mushrooms’ first full year at its new farm — one that is powered by solar energy, and team members will be excited to talk to show attendees about its efforts.

“We are looking forward to sharing the impact of our efforts around sustainability,” Delaney said. “Also, we will be looking to some of the education sessions to learn more about what else we could be doing in this area.”

Overall, the mushroom category has been down in 2022 compared to last year.

“It was a difficult year to project demand as so many consumer habits were adjusting post pandemic,” Delaney said. “We are starting to see the category climb and we expect 2023 to be a great year for mushrooms.”

Gratefully, the company considers itself fortunate to be growing with its partners.

“Many of our customers have expansion plans in the coming year and we place a lot of emphasis on ensuring we grow to meet their goals,” Delaney said.