Kiwifruit stalwart Leo Mangos a change merchant and force of nature

“People would often say; oh, ‘they’ should do something about that. Well, I’m the ‘they’,” the 89-year-old, whose eyes are as steely as his determination, said.

And not one grey one on that full head of hair.

“I do something about it. I’m not going to stand for this.”

What Leo Mangos wouldn’t stand for were some serious anomalies in the marketing of kiwifruit.

“There were seven exporters selling kiwifruit to the same marketplace,” he said.

“The only way they could compete was by undercutting each other. And they drove prices down to the point growers weren’t making any money.”

The industry was further decimated by the 1987 stock market crash when returns in Europe plummeted, investors turned off and the industry hit rock bottom.

The industry was seriously divided over how to recover from the slump.

It took a couple of industry visionaries — Leo Mangos and Paul Heywood.

They saw a way forward in the establishment of one co-operative, a single desk exporter, to sell the crop.

“With a grower co-operative, the grower owns the business, they export the product themselves, so all the money comes back to the growers,” Mangos said.

No one at the time thought it possible.

But 35 years ago, Leo Mangos and Paul Heywood, as senior leaders of the powerful Fruitgrower’s Federation, lobbied, manoeuvred and manipulated to get “four pillars” of legislation enacted that would dramatically overhaul the way kiwifruit was marketed.

About 84% of growers, and the Labour Government, backed their call for the Kiwifruit Marketing Regulations and a Kiwifruit Marketing Authority which would be the precursor to the Zespri of today.

“It meant growers couldn’t be screwed on price and at the same time guarantee both supply and quality.”

It was no small victory because they had to get the regulations past Roger Douglas, a free marketer who was totally opposed to marketing boards.

In 2014, Mangos and Heywood were named joint winners of the Hayward Medal which honours “dedication, knowledge, excellence and passion of New Zealand kiwifruit industry leaders”.

Mangos also received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal from then Prime Minister, Geoffrey Palmer, in recognition of his services to New Zealand.

He would also receive the Queen’s Service Medal, in part for his achievement in the kiwifruit industry.

“The Kiwifruit Marketing Regulations stabilised an industry which is going to hit $5 billion,” Mangos said.

“It would not have been there without those regulations, it would not have survived.”

There was also the PSA fungal disease crisis that threatened the industry.

“But the grower co-operative had enough money to put into research and development and showed people they could grow kiwifruit and live with the fungal disease.”

Mangos said without the legislation and the investment, kiwifruit would have shrivelled into a minor industry.

If he felt a responsibility to the kiwifruit industry, he also felt a responsibility to the long history of the Mangos family in New Zealand.

The man of Greek stock has put that right too, with the self-published book Pioneer Stock — a rollicking personal account of hardship, and the resilience and resolve of “New Zealand’s first Greek family”.

“It’s so my family now, and in the future, can assess the person that is and was Leo Patrick Mangos.”

And he’ll probably be assessed as a shrewd, farsighted, no-nonsense entrepreneur and adventurer who pursued what he believed to be good, fair and right.

After Lyell, Leo grew up in Cromwell and would run a thriving carpet-laying business, and serve on the local borough council and volunteer fire board.

That’s where pulled off one of his two “most satisfying achievements”.

He helped convince Norman Kirk to drive through the Lake Wānaka Preservation Act 1973 which would safeguard the lake against the ravages of “Think Big” and the hydro-electricity development of the Clutha Valley.

He came north to grow oranges in Omokoroa, then bought 20 acres on Moffat Rd and added kiwifruit to avocados.

He dabbled in politics – stood for Labour in the Kaimai Electorate in 1981, simply because no one would.

He even locked horns with Tim Shadbolt on the back of a truck during a Springbok Tour rally – called protesters “cowards because sport couldn’t fight back”.

The only chink in this strongman’s armour comes when discussing Margaret – his lifelong love, his wife.

He is teary as he talks of being by her side when she died at home in Linley Terrace in July 2019.

It was one of Margaret’s friends who perhaps most accurately captured the man: “If Leo gets involved, there will be change.”

This article was originally published in Coast & Country News