The California Table Grape Commission has, over the years, had "tremendous success with display contests," according to Jim Howard, the commission's communications director. But a display contest currently running during the month of June has proven to be one of the more successful ever, he said.

"We have a record number of retailers who have expressed interest in the contest and who have received point-of-sale materials from the commission for use in the contest, Mr. Howard said.

Exactly how many retailers actually participated will not be known until all entries have been received. But "we are expecting good participation, he said.

Results from previous contests demonstrate that participation in a fresh California grape display not only promotes grapes in participating stores during the contest, but also creates a continued beneficial effect after the contest, he said.

"We see an average of over 100 percent increase in sales when a given store participates in the contest. Afterward, "there is a nice lingering effect, he said. During the contest, "at the store level they are increasing the size of their displays, they are advertising, they are pointing out the California origin [of the grapes] and they are doing everything they can to increase sales. And they see sales increase significantly. Those lessons tend to remain, Mr. Howard said.

Retailers who participate in the contest "discover more effective ways to promote grapes, he added.

Participation in the current June display contest requires that a store build a display featuring a minimum of two varieties of California grapes for a minimum of two weeks during the month.

The program was launched this year "as soon as there was promotable volume of fresh California grapes available, Mr. Howard said. "We met with all of the major retailers, and all of the major retailers signed up for promotions throughout the season.

Once again this year, the commission is running a billboard campaign for California grapes. New this year are "some larger-format, higher-visibility billboards in key markets, Mr. Howard said.

"Our main billboard campaign is a smaller format, and they are tagged to retailers, he explained. Besides being smaller, the boards are "down very close to the retail stores. This year, "on top of that, we have larger-format billboards, he said. Those are positioned in locations where "they are seen by a lot more consumers in order to reinforce the commission's message regarding fresh California grapes.

Nutrition and health research is another ongoing area of activity for the commission and one that has been receiving a good deal of attention in recent years. Many recent studies have highlighted the beneficial health effects of resveratrol and other phytonutrients contained in fresh grapes. That is, of course, good news for grape growers and good news for consumers who enjoy eating grapes.

Drawing on the conclusions from that research, the commission is in the initial phases of working with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to see what can be done in terms of a health claim for grapes, Mr. Howard said.

"We had an initial meeting with folks over at FDA to get the process of pursuing a health claim for grapes started. "Getting a health clam is definitely a process and will take "a few years, he said. "But we have a good road map for it, and we feel pretty good about that.

Meanwhile, "we continue to get a lot of very positive [results from] studies relating to health benefits of grapes. This year, the commission will be funding at least three and possibly as many as six studies. "We did have a record number of proposals in response to our request for proposals for health research, and those are now being reviewed, Mr. Howard said. "There is a lot of scientific interest in grapes and the compounds in grapes.

The commission is also looking into "what could be said about grapes, either in consumer advertising or on packaging, relating to the benefits of eating grapes, that would be "short of a health claim requiring FDA approval, he said.