California’s fresh grape industry reached out to the nation’s restaurants last year with record-setting publicity in the top foodservice publications in the country. In 2007, more than 35 articles or recipes appeared in major foodservice publications, such as Restaurant Hospitality and R&I magazine. The combined circulation for all of the coverage was nearly 2 million food and restaurant professionals.

“Our work with the foodservice industry includes both one-on-one meetings with key decision makers and broad outreach through the foodservice publications,” said Cindy Plummer, vice president of domestic marketing for the commission. “This increase in coverage is just part of an overall growth of fresh California grapes in foodservice.”

In recent years, fresh grapes have made high-profile appearances in a wide range of restaurants and foodservice outlets. “We’ve seen grapes in salads and sandwiches at fast food restaurants and as a side dish at university cafeterias,” said Plummer. “The versatility of California grapes combined with the long May through December season makes them a natural fit for foodservice.”

Last year’s foodservice publicity was a result of a commission outreach program that provided news, recipes and photographs to the various publications. If the commission had paid for the space as advertising, the total cost would have been more than $180,000. The commission spent less than one sixth of that amount creating the photos, recipes and relevant releases for the trade press. “Not only does coverage in the publications have more credibility than advertising, it’s also much more cost-effective,” said Plummer.

The California Table Grape Commission was created by the California legislature in 1967 to increase worldwide demand for fresh California grapes through a variety of research and promotional programs.