The heart of the harvest: North Bay Produce unveils global rebrand at Fruit Logistica 2026

Reported by Ed Vernon, from Berlin. 

At the heart of the bustling floor at Fruit Logistica 2026 this week, North Bay Produce officially signaled a new era in its history. 

The company, a staple in the produce industry since the late 1980s, has retired its traditional map-based logo in favor of a brand identity centered on the human element of agriculture. 

Brian Klumpp, the North Bay’s Director of Marketing, labeled the change as a necessary evolution to reflect a company that has outgrown its original borders.

A rebrand built around the "heart" of North Bay Produce

The executive invited FreshFruitPortal.com to the North Bay booth at Fruit Logistica, where he explained that the company logo had featured a map for decades. The icon focused on the United States and North America before expanding to cover the rest of the continent to reflect the geographical location of the firm’s farms.  

However, as the company’s footprint extended across the Atlantic and into the east, the map became a limitation rather than a representation.

"The map couldn’t cover that anymore," Klumpp said. 

But it wasn’t only about geography. The executive explains that the focus shifted beyond what a map could represent to underscore something more profound: “The essence of who we are and what’s important to know about us."

North Bay Produce’s new logo now features the farmer, representing the people around the world behind the firm’s products. 

“We wanted people to know who’s standing behind the product. And the farmers are the heart of the company because we are a cooperative. It's a very unique situation,” Klumpp adds.

The design was deliberately created to ensure the figure’s clothing, hat, and features do not lean toward any specific region or gender, so as to represent the diverse men and women who own and operate the cooperative's farms.

The visual shift is accompanied by a broader narrative strategy across packaging and digital platforms that focuses on storytelling. By highlighting North Bay farmers’ work ethic and trustworthiness, the company aims to satisfy the modern consumer’s desire for a direct connection with the source of their food.

Strategic expansion: Beyond the Americas

While the rebrand captures the company’s spirit, its physical growth provides the logistical backbone for its success. 

North Bay Produce has moved far beyond its origins in the Americas, establishing significant production in Morocco, Africa, and Eastern Europe. This expansion is not merely about size, but about ensuring a 52-week supply of fresh produce by strategically filling seasonal gaps.

The growth of North Bay’s footprint worldwide has been facilitated by its cooperative model. The structure, Klumpp explains, benefits member farms both economically and technologically by enabling them to seamlessly share resources, innovations, and best practices across continents.

“A big part of our business these days has been varietal development with nurseries and universities,” the executive says. “That technology gets to be placed on all these farms in the world. Economically, that's helpful, too, to be more efficient.”

The firm is cautious about global expansion, ensuring that growth is intentional and strategic rather than for growth's sake. 

“It's very critical to us that we find farms that share our same ethics and our same values. We don't want to just add anybody that we can,” Klumpp says. “We try to find people that are like us, that we trust, that trust us, that we can work well together, because that's a big part of it.”

This approach, the executive says, has resulted in relationships spanning generations, creating a stable, global network unified under a single, human-centric brand.

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