The California Fig Advisory Board was established more than 60 years ago, according to Chief Executive Officer Karla Stockli.

But the fig is anything but old fashioned. Both in its dry and fresh offerings, the “California fig has become the darling of the culinary world,” she said. Figs have been sold in their fresh form for many years but there is no doubt that sales have increased tremendously in the past decade. Along with some of its cousins from the vegetable world — kale and Brussels sprouts come to mind — figs are popping up in culinary publications and on the food television shows all the time.Karla Stockli, chief executive officer of the California Fig Advisory Board.

Stockli rattled off a list of magazines and shows where the fruit has been featured in the past year or so. The list began with the prestigious magazines of Cooking Light and Bon Appetite and continued through the well-watched television shows of Rachel Ray and Oprah. Figs are trendy.

While the California fig industry presents a single promotional face to its target audience with one website (www.californiafigs.com or calfreshfigs.com, both go to the same place) and one CEO, for accounting purposes, there are two umbrella organizations. The California Fig Advisory Board is a mandatory state marketing order, which promotes the state’s dried fig output. The California Fresh Fig Growers Association is a voluntary organization that promotes fresh figs. A fig and prosciutto pizza.Most growers produce both dried and fresh figs, and most have voluntarily joined the fresh organization.

And Stockli said the goal of both organizations and the marketing effort is the same: to provide public relations and marketing support to increase consumption of figs and provide value to growers. Figs are available in a dried format 12 months of the year and about nine months (May through January) as a fresh product. The fresh season continues to be expanded on each end through agricultural practices, and this year, because of warm weather. While Stockli typically tells people that fresh figs begin in mid-May, this year the first fresh figs were picked on April 22. And she said there is a good chance there will still be some fresh figs in the marketplace from this season once February rolls around.

It’s hard to determine if it is the efforts of the industry associations that have put figs on the front page, but those efforts have certainly fueled the fire.

Stockli and her staff are constantly keeping figs — both dried and fresh — in the minds and hands of these food show producers and food magazine editors. They send samples, recipes and constant communication updating the influencers on the size and timing of the crop. Though this year’s fresh crop began in April, Stockli said the pipeline won’t be full until late May or early June. She said supplies will be light through the month of May and she has reached out to the strong East Coast markets and alerted them to that fact.

She said when she started in the fig industry in 2008, her office would receive inquiries from food editors wanting to find fresh figs for February photo shoots. In the beginning, she said it was an education process to inform these influencers of the timing and uses of the crop. Judging by the reduced number of calls they now receive in February looking for fresh figs, she believes the educational effort has been successful.

The fig originated in Asia and the Middle East and does very well in temperate climates such as the Mediterranean region. As such it is a traditional fruit for people from that area and does excellently in markets in the United States that were originally populated by Italians and Greeks from around that region. “The Northeast is an excellent market for us but so is the Southeast, especially Florida,” Stockli said. “We know many people have retired from the Northeast and moved to Florida and so maybe that is why we do so well there.”

She added that Canada is an excellent market, especially for fresh figs. “We sell about 50 percent of our fresh crop into Canada.”

For this season, California has estimated about 20 million pounds of dried figs and 11 million pounds of fresh figs. Stockli said growers switch back and forth harvesting for those two different sectors depending upon the time of the year for each variety. Most fig trees produce two crops per year. The first one consists of fruit from last year’s budwood and is called the breva crop. The second is from the new budwood and is called the main crop. Stockli said each grower makes their own determination what market they are picking for based on many factors, including market price and the weather. As it gets late in the year, cool and wet weather can damage the fresh crop so it’s riskier to keep the fruit on the tree for that market. On the other hand, it can pay dividends in the marketplace. That was especially true with the early fruit this year, with some cartons returning a very strong $45 at the beginning of the season.

Varieties also play into the marketing decision. Most varieties, including Black Mission, Calimyrna, Kadota and Sierra, produce both fresh and dried figs. Brown Turkey and the newest California variety, Tiger figs, are grown only for the fresh market.

When describing each fig and its flavor, Stockli uses wine notes, invoking such phrases as earthy and spicy tones to describe Black Missions, which she says go well in strong sauces with meat. She compares Brown Turkey figs to a Pinot Noir and says a combination of the white varieties of Calimyrna and Kadota invoke a buttery, nutty flavor that is similar to a Chardonnay.

This nomenclature plays well with the foodies who are a big target market for the California fig shippers and promoters. The promotional efforts are targeted to the magazines they read, the shows they watch and the bloggers they follow. Stockli estimated that last year the fig group received $5 million in ad value through its public relations effort.

On the retail side, the umbrella groups leave it up to the shippers and processors to work individually with retailers to promote figs. For fresh fig retail promotions, those food page ads typically run in July and August. When the opportunity presents itself, Stockli’s group will step in and support that regional marketing effort through public relations events with bloggers or local publications.

She said California figs are currently in a very enviable position. “We are in a sellout position in both the fresh and dried markets” on an annual basis.

Figs are definitely an up-and-coming crop despite their 60 years of promotion and centuries-old history.