As always, the Mushroom Council, headquartered in San Jose, CA, plans strong promotional initiatives in conjunction with National Mushroom Month in September.

The mushroom industry has rallied around the council for its ongoing and highly successful promotions that have resulted in increased consumption across North America.Crimini mushrooms. (Photo courtesy of the Mushroom Council)

Kathleen Preis, marketing coordinator for the council, said the publicity this year will be strongly connected to The Blend promotion through traditional public relations outreach and Mushroom Month-themed social media posts.

“The council plans to partner with a well-known YouTube personality to create a series of videos highlighting The Blend,” said Preis. “And we will promote the five winners from the summer’s Better Burger Project campaign with the James Beard Foundation. The five chefs with the most Instagram tags will be invited to prepare their burgers at the annual James Beard Foundation conference in New York City at the historic James Beard House in October.”

The winners will also be announced via traditional and social media.

The partnership with the James Beard Foundation in the Better Burger Project has been a huge success. Nationwide, 222 restaurants have participated in the campaign by menuing creative takes on mushroom blended burgers. The council has garnered more than 32 million media impressions with articles published about the project in various consumer media outlets.

The Mushroom Council recently exhibited at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. At the show the council sampled blended products as well as individually quick-frozen diced mushrooms, which, due to popularity of The Blend, are now available to districts for direct delivery as well as for diversion to processing into blended products.

“There are now over a dozen blended products available for school districts to purchase, including mushroom blended burgers, tacos and meatballs,” said Preis. “Dozens of districts menu The Blend to their students.”

The Mushroom Council launched a Mushroom Harvest of the Month Kit for schools to incorporate mushrooms into their farm-to-school programs. The kit includes everything needed to promote mushrooms as a produce item for students. San Diego, Philadelphia and Dallas are all incorporating mushrooms into their Harvest of the Month program.

Preis pointed out that total mushroom shipments have increased by approximately 2 percent for the 52-week period ending April 2015.

The council will continue its streamlined marketing strategy to promote The Blend and the Better Burger Project.

“The Blend is still in the early phases of adoption in the market,” noted Preis. “The council will continue to promote and partner with strategic organizations to grow awareness and acceptance of The Blend, and we will continue to expand it into retail with pilots at select chains across the country.

“To expand the foodservice segment, the council will continue to work with strategic partners, chains, foodservice management companies, schools and universities to assist in menu development to add The Blend to menus,” she added.

The council will also once again promote its Pink campaign and breast cancer awareness promotion in October as mushroom shippers change to pink mushroom tills to signify the annual $50,000 donation to City of Hope research from the mushroom industry.

Preis offered updated statistics on mushroom sales. She said that white button mushrooms continue to hold the largest share with 62 percent of mushroom sales.

“Brown mushrooms, including Portabella and Crimini, represent 33 percent of total mushroom sales,” she added. “Specialty mushrooms hold approximately four percent of sales, but are the fastest growing category with 7 percent growth in total dollar sales for the 52 week period ending June 14.”