Research Reports

If you’re looking for a strong growth category in your produce department, look no further than your mushroom display.

Fresh mushrooms ranked among the top 20 best-selling items in produce in 2010 and racked up a 3% increase in volume sold, outperforming the 1.6% increase recorded by the department as a whole, according to the Mushroom Council, based in San Jose, Calif.

Nearly half – 48% – of all consumers purchased mushrooms during the past 12 months, according to The Packer’s Fresh Trends.

Successful retailers and progressive grower-shippers say innovative displays, multiple varietal offerings, novel use suggestions and frequent promotions can help sustain or even bolster that growth.

Multiple displays

Secondary displays are an especially effective way to move more mushrooms, says Gary Schroeder, director at Dole Mushrooms, Kennett Square, Pa.

He recommends that produce managers supplement their 4- to 6-foot primary display with additional sets in the meat department and facings in the salad section.

“Every time we’ve done that, we’ve seen very positive response,” Schroeder says.
“Secondary displays really do work,” says Paul Frederic, senior vice president of sales and marketing for To-Jo Mushrooms, Avondale, Pa., who suggests that retailers also display mushrooms in their meal solutions centers.

Mushroom Movers Mushroom grower-shippers consistently work to upgrade the category. Here’s a look at what some of them have been up to: Basciani Mushroom Farms, Avondale, Pa., now is producing 25,000 pounds of mushrooms each week at a Louisiana farm under the Red Hill Creole Mushroom Farm label. “We’re in a couple of retailers’ buy-local programs down there,” says Fred Recchiuti, general manager. Dole Mushrooms, Kennett Square, Pa., has expanded its portabella facility and improved the medium in which it grows shitake mushrooms, director Gary Schroeder says. The medium consists of “logs” made of 6 pounds of sawdust in plastic bags that have high-tech filters allowing free exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Highline Mushrooms, Leamington, Ontario, is the first Canadian company to introduce vitamin D-enriched mushrooms, says Jane Rhyno, director of sales and marketing. Highline also has three “sliced and ready to go” mushroom blends – sauté, gourmet and restaurant – that incorporate a mix of exotic and more common mushrooms into one pack. Monterey Mushrooms Inc., Watsonville, Calif., continues to expand its vitamin D mushrooms, vice president Joe Caldwell says. They’re now in more than 7,500 stores in 42 states plus Puerto Rico. Monterey also will feature all portabella products in its summer merchandising program, “which will encompass benefits for consumers, retailers, store produce managers and foodservice distributors,” he says. Ponderosa Mushrooms, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, now offers sustainable, biodegradable or home compostable packaging for its mushroom till, president Joe Salvo says. The company expects strong sales for its fresh morel season through August with porcinis coming on in May and June and chanterelles coming on in June. To-Jo Mushrooms, Avondale, Pa., expects to have a new, 7-ounce package of To-Jo brand microwaveable mushrooms in stores in its marketing areas in the spring, says Paul Frederic, senior vice president of sales and marketing. The line will include traditional sautéed and two other flavors to be determined, he says. Consumers just unwrap the package, microwave for four minutes, “and they have prepared mushrooms,” he says.

Nash-Finch Co., a Minneapolis-based firm of 46 corporately owned stores under five banners that also distributes to more than 1,500 supermarkets, sets up supplementary mushroom displays in “bunkers” next to the meat cases, says Debra Verdeja, produce and floral sales manager for corporate regional stores.

The stores don’t stock the mushrooms inside the meat cases because they’re too cold, and moisture may affect the mushrooms, she says.

Most of the stores’ primary mushroom displays have been moved from single-deck cases to five-deck cases to improve air flow, Verdeja says.

A produce manager in a St. Peter, Minn., store doubled his sales after moving mushrooms to a five-deck case and tying them in with packaged salads, she says. “It was a nice bump in sales for him.”

A Long Beach, Calif., location of Whole Foods Market Inc., an Austin, Texas-based chain of more than 300 markets, merchandises portabella grilling caps – two mushrooms with olive oil, garlic and parsley in an overwrapped cardboard container – in a multitiered refrigerated case at the front of the department.

The case also contains sliced portabella mushrooms, along with other cut items that are ready for use. Both are labeled Shortcut Chef.

The store’s main mushroom display is in a multitiered refrigerated case against the store’s south wall.

Sales boosters

You also may gain incremental sales by offering an extensive selection of mushrooms – including specialty varieties.

Although sales of white button mushrooms grew by 2.9% in volume last year, and brown varieties grew by 5.8%, volume of specialty mushrooms grew by 9.3%, the Mushroom Council reports.

“We offer about 30 different choices for the customer,” says Art DeCesare, category merchant in produce for Wegman’s Food Markets Inc., a chain of 77 stores based in Rochester, N.Y.

The actual number of stock-keeping units varies by store, but they typically display 20 SKUs, including five or six versions of white mushrooms and baby bellas alone, DeCesare says.

Customers lean toward specialty varieties at many of the five Solvang, Calif.-based New Frontiers Natural Marketplace stores.

“In our California stores, chanterelles do really, really well,” says John Odahara, produce director.

He can offer chanterelles at a value price because he sources directly from the mushroom pickers.

“If we had to buy them wholesale, the retails would be much higher,” he says.
Chanterelles account for 25% of the stores’ mushrooms sales volume in early spring and late fall, he says.

The Whole Foods store had oyster mushroom growing kits for $19.99 on the top row of its mushroom display.

Among its bulk offerings were organic oyster mushrooms, shitakes, Oregon-grown chanterelles, blue foot mushrooms from France that sold for $39.99 a pound and Oregon-grown maitakes for $29.99 a pound.

“Oftentimes bulk mushrooms are where a consumer might start,” Frederic says.
Consumers don’t have to buy a whole package. They pick up a couple of mushrooms, slice them and put them on their salad as a trial.

The Whole Foods display also featured 6-ounce overwrapped packages of eryngii (king oyster) mushrooms, organic bunashimeji (beech) mushrooms and 6-ounce bags of organic Bunapi (white beech) mushrooms from Hokto Kinoko Co. in San Marcos, Calif.

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Recipes for success

Offering use suggestions or recipes is another way to encourage additional purchases.

“Many consumers don’t know how to prepare mushrooms, so if retailers can provide recipes, whether in a recipe kiosk or in their monthly or quarterly magazine, on their website, through Twitter or any of the social media, that’s great,” Frederic says.

Wegman’s has a team of chefs who “try to outdo each other” when it comes to preparing new recipes, Wegman’s DeCesare says.

They came up with some new tastes and combinations for a spread in the company’s Menu magazine and explained that creating tasty mushroom dishes “isn’t as complicated as it looks,” he says.

The chain also features a host of creative mushroom recipes on its website.
Monterey Mushrooms Inc., Watsonville, Calif., will focus on innovative uses for portabella mushrooms this summer, vice president Joe Caldwell says.

Most consumers know portabellas are good for grilling, he says, but the company hopes retailers – especially those in the Southwest – will promote them as meat substitutes in fajitas, tacos and burritos.

They also can be used in place of cubed tofu in stir-fry dishes that are especially popular among many Asian consumers.

“We’ve developed recipes that really use a lot of other vegetables partners,” Caldwell says, such as green bean casserole, potato casserole and a variety of soups and salads that feature sliced portabellas.

Play up the health benefits of mushrooms.

They’re fat- and cholesterol-free with only 20 calories per serving, low in sodium, packed with potassium, contain antioxidants and are the only source of vitamin D in the produce aisle, the Mushroom Council says.

Spotlight the category

You can never go wrong advertising or promoting mushrooms.

New Frontiers features mushrooms – usually basic white or brown varieties – on ad about once a quarter and sees as much as a 25% sales boost, Odahara says.

Nash-Finch advertises mushrooms at least twice a month, Verdeja says.

She usually alternates between white mushrooms and baby portabellas and features whole and sliced versions.

“It really helps the movement when I do that,” she says.

Dole Mushrooms has had success with an offer that allows consumers to get a free, 8-ounce package of mushrooms when they buy a bag of Dole salad, Schroeder says.

The promotion helps shoppers make the connection between mushrooms and salads.
“We’ve seen significantly above-average mushroom and salad sales when we’ve done that,” Schroeder says.