While Q3 organic sales declined slightly, we still expect to deliver organic sales growth in 2021 at the high end of our 100 to 200 basis points annual target on top of the 4% organic growth we generated in 2020.
We estimate that the constraints in supply and labor markets resulted in approximately $25 million in delayed sales in the third quarter.
We delivered strong adjusted EBITDA growth of $284 million, up 14% year-over-year.
EBITDA growth was driven by positive price realization of $53 million and favorable net performance of $79 million, which offset unprecedented commodity input cost inflation of $88 million experienced in the quarter.
Approximately $650 million in pricing initiatives have been implemented and will be recognized over the 2021 and 2022 time horizon.
10 months earlier we have been pursuing the required regulatory approvals for the AR Packaging acquisition we announced in May of this year.
Turning now to Slide 4, you will see the innovation powerhouse that the combination of AR Packaging will create where the large distributed footprint of AR Packaging, it's 25 converting facilities across Eastern and Western Europe add significant scale and cost-efficiency benefits.
We have executed $63 million, a positive price that is flowing through the business over the first nine months of 2021, and we expect to realize approximately $77 million of positive pricing during the fourth quarter.
We're currently targeting $510 million of pricing in 2022 based on implemented and recognized pricing initiatives.
In total, at this point, we expect to execute approximately $650 million in price actions over the 2021 and 2022 time horizon.
We surpassed our net organic sales growth goal in 2020 delivering 4% growth, and we expect to deliver at the high end of our targeted 100 to 200 basis points goal this year.
Notably, this year's expected net organic growth of approximately 200 basis points reflects growth on top of the very strong growth we drove in 2020.
Net organic sales have experienced growth of 2% compared to the same period in 2020, and the two-year compounded annual growth rate for organic sales since 2019 is 3%.
Net sales increased 5% or $84 million from the prior year period to $1.8 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 14% to $284 million resulting in an improved adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.9%.
Adjusted earnings per share grew 31% to $0.34 a share.
Finally, our integration rate increased to 73% as we continue to internalize all paperboard into our converting operations.
On Slide 10 and 11, you'll see our revenue and EBITDA waterfalls.
The drivers of the 5% year-over-year increase in sales were $53 million in pricing, $20 million of higher volume mix and $11 million of favorable foreign exchange.
Adjusted EBITDA increased $34 million or 14% year-over-year to $284 million in the third quarter versus the prior year period.
Adjusted EBITDA growth was driven by $53 million in price, $3 million in volume mix, and $79 million in improved net productivity.
Adjusted EBITDA was unfavorably impacted by $88 million of commodity input cost inflation, and $13 million of labor, benefits, and other inflation.
Our foodservice business continue to recover from last year, growing 11% year-over-year.
Our food, beverage, and consumer sales improved 3% including acquisitions.
9 point to $25 million in delayed sales resulting from supply chain and labor market constraints during the quarter.
CRB was 95% while SBS improved sequentially and was 96% at the end of the quarter.
Our CUK operating rate continue to be well about 95%.
We ended the quarter with net leverage of 3.97 times.
We have clear line of sight to bring leverage down to 3.5 times or lower at the end of 2022, after leverage peaks in the fourth quarter due to the financing for AR Packaging acquisition.
Global liquidity was $1.8 billion at the end of the third quarter.
Importantly, after we found and complete the AR Packaging acquisition, our global liquidity will remain substantial with approximately $1 billion available.
2021 adjusted EBITDA is projected to be in a range of $1.04 billion $1.06 billion.
We anticipate cash flow will be in the range of $100 million to $150 million for the year.
In the guard rails we provided last quarter for adjusted EBITDA in the $1.4 billion-plus range.
AR Packaging and Americraft are expected to contribute $160 million and $30 million before synergies respectively.
For the base business, it is reasonable to assume at least $20 million from our traditional EBITDA drivers of volume mix and net performance, more than offsetting labor, benefits, other inflation, and FX.
The first $50 million of incremental EBITDA from our Kalamazoo project and a minimum recovery of $170 million of 2021 price cost dislocation provided a clear step-change higher to adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 billion-plus in 2022.
The material EBITDA growth and cash flow generation projections give us line of sight to year-end 2022 leverage at 3.5 times or lower.

Summary:
While Q3 organic sales declined slightly, we still expect to deliver organic sales growth in 2021 at the high end of our 100 to 200 basis points annual target on top of the 4% organic growth we generated in 2020.
Approximately $650 million in pricing initiatives have been implemented and will be recognized over the 2021 and 2022 time horizon.
In total, at this point, we expect to execute approximately $650 million in price actions over the 2021 and 2022 time horizon.
We surpassed our net organic sales growth goal in 2020 delivering 4% growth, and we expect to deliver at the high end of our targeted 100 to 200 basis points goal this year.
Notably, this year's expected net organic growth of approximately 200 basis points reflects growth on top of the very strong growth we drove in 2020.
Net sales increased 5% or $84 million from the prior year period to $1.8 billion.
Adjusted earnings per share grew 31% to $0.34 a share.
Importantly, after we found and complete the AR Packaging acquisition, our global liquidity will remain substantial with approximately $1 billion available.