Specifically, overall restaurant traffic in the US was between 85% and 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
After a slow start to the quarter, traffic at full service restaurants recovered to 70% to 80% of prior-year levels.
In contrast, demand in non-commercial customers, which includes lodging and hospitality, healthcare, schools and university, sports and entertainment, and workplace environments, remain around 50% of prior-year levels for the entire quarter.
In retail, demand in the quarter was strong with weekly category volume at 115% to 125% of prior-year levels as consumers continued to eat more meals at home.
In Europe, which is served by our Lamb-Weston/Meijer joint venture, fry demand in the quarter was 80% to 85% of prior-year levels.
Second, as you may have seen a couple of weeks ago, we announced that we're building a new French fry processing facility in China at a total investment of around $250 million.
This greenfield facility will complement our planned Shangdu and is expected to add about 250 million pounds of frozen potato product capacity.
We chose to build this plant in China because it's a fast-growing 1 billion pound plus market and a key driver to our international growth.
Specifically in the quarter, net sales declined 4% to $896 million.
Sales volume was down 6%, largely due to the pandemic's impact on fry demand, but improved through the quarter after a slow start.
Importantly, that rate of volume decline improved sequentially from the 14% decline that we realized during the first half of fiscal 2021.
Gross profit declined $54 million as lower sales and higher manufacturing and distribution costs more than offset the benefit of favorable price/mix and productivity savings.
Moving to the segments -- moving on from cost of sales, excuse me, our SG&A increased $8 million in the quarter.
Equity method earnings were $11 million.
Excluding the impact of unrealized mark-to-market adjustments and a comparability item in the prior-year quarter, equity earnings declined about $11 million.
Adjusted EBITDA, including joint ventures, was $167 million, which is down $61 million.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share in the quarter was $0.45, which is down $0.32, mostly due to lower income from operations.
Sales for our Global segment, which generally includes sales for the top 100 North American based QSR and full service restaurant chains, as well as all sales outside of North America, were down 2% in the quarter.
Volume was down only 2%, which is much better than the minus 12% we realized during the first half of fiscal 2021.
Shipments to large chain restaurant customers in the US, of which approximately 85% are to QSRs, increased nominally versus prior year.
International shipments, which historically comprise about 40% of the segment's volume, were about 95% of prior-year levels in the aggregate.
That's up from around 75% of prior-year levels that we realized during the first half of fiscal 2021.
Global's product contribution margin, which is gross profit less A&P expense, declined 27% to $79 million.
Sales for our Foodservice segment, which services North American foodservice distributors and restaurant chains generally outside the top 100 North American restaurant customers, declined 22%.
After a slow start, shipments to smaller chain and independent full service and quick service restaurants recovered to about 90% of prior-year levels for the entire quarter as governments gradually ease social and indoor dining restrictions.
In contrast, shipments to non-commercial customers remained at around 50% of prior-year levels, with continued strength in healthcare more than offset by weakness in other channels such as travel, hospitality, and education.
Price/mix increased 2% behind the carryover pricing benefit of pricing actions we took in the second half of fiscal 2020.
Foodservice's product contribution margin declined 30% to $70 million.
Sales for our Retail segment increased 23%, with volume up 13%.
Sales of our branded portfolio, which include Alexia, Grown in Idaho and licensed restaurant trademarks, were up about 45%, continuing the strong growth trend we've seen since the start of the pandemic and well above category volume growth rates that have been between 15% and 25% in the quarter.
Price/mix increased 10%, primarily reflecting the favorable mix benefit of selling more of our higher-margin branded products.
Retail's product contribution margin increased 15% to $33 million.
The increase was driven by favorable mix and was partially offset by higher manufacturing and distribution costs, as well as $1 million increase in advertising and promotional expense.
At the end of the third quarter, we had nearly $715 million of cash on hand and our revolver was undrawn.
Our total debt was more than $2.7 billion and our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was about 3.5 times.
In the first three quarters of fiscal 2021, we generated nearly $375 million of cash from operations, which is down about $60 million versus last year due to lower sales and earnings.
We spent $107 million in capex and paid $101 million in dividends.
In addition, in the third quarter, we resumed our share buyback program and bought back nearly $13 million worth of stock at an average price of just over $77.00 per share.
US shipments in the four weeks ending March 28 were approximately 90% of levels during a similar period for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019.
In our Global segment, shipments to our large QSR and full service chain restaurant customers in the US were more than 85% of fiscal 2019 levels, and we expect that rate will largely continue for the remainder of the fourth quarter.
In our Foodservice segment, shipments to our full service restaurants, regional and small QSRs, and non-commercial customers in aggregate were approximately 90% of fiscal 2019 levels.
Shipments to non-commercial customers, which have historically comprised about 25% of the segment's volume, remained at around half of fiscal 2019 levels.
In our Retail segment, shipments were approximately 110% of fiscal 2019 levels, with strong volume growth of our branded products partially offset by a decline in shipments of private label products.
In Europe, shipments by our Lamb-Weston/Meijer joint venture were about 85% of fiscal 2019 levels.
Shipments to our other international markets, which primarily include Asia, Oceania and Latin America, were approximately 75% of fiscal 2019 levels in aggregate.

Summary:
Specifically in the quarter, net sales declined 4% to $896 million.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share in the quarter was $0.45, which is down $0.32, mostly due to lower income from operations.
US shipments in the four weeks ending March 28 were approximately 90% of levels during a similar period for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019.
In Europe, shipments by our Lamb-Weston/Meijer joint venture were about 85% of fiscal 2019 levels.