Basil Arthur Goodman (83 years)
SEASONAL SOLUTIONS PIONEER REMEMBERED
Born in Motueka and married to Lois for 60 years this year, Basil Goodman knew how to grow things – not just fruit and vegetables, but successful companies as well.
His first introduction to the horticulture industry started when he left school at just 16, firstly picking tomatoes and then pruning fruit trees in the weekends.
Many will remember him as the leading pioneer in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, where he was instrumental in the initial pilot in 2006, and then became the founding chairman of the Seasonal Solutions cooperative, serving for more than 11 years as board chair. In that time, Basil was responsible for growing Seasonal Solutions into the successful cooperative it is today.
When it first started, just 45 men came from Vanuatu to Hawke’s Bay and Central Otago. One of the original orchard workers spoke at his funeral with much admiration for Basil, and along with three others, sang and shared a beautiful heartfelt song.
A man with a big personality who had time for everyone, he was also known as a tough lobbyist with strong links to government, who always got stuff done.
Chair of Summerfruit New Zealand from 2000 to 2008 and on the Summerfruit Exporters Committee, he was also a board member of the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority and became a successful director of MG Marketing – the largest wholesaler in New Zealand.
In 2010 he was awarded the Bledisloe Cup for his outstanding contribution to the horticulture industry.
A much-loved father of Michelle and Julie and father-in-law of Michael, cherished Poppa of Lillian and Sam, Dorothy and Katie, Henry, Lauren and Ben, Callum and Kophie, and George, and adored great-grandfather of Poppy, Basil was described by his family as someone who saw potential in everything.
Moving his young family from Nelson to Balclutha and then on to Central Otago in the 1970s, he first started working for established pipfruit grower Con van der Voort in Ettrick, where he stayed for six years.
Con spoke at his funeral and said he knew back then Basil would go places. He “came to my notice very quickly as a leader. He didn't stand fools,” he said.
The men had a lot of fun, but admittedly with two strong personalities in the mix, there were a few disagreements too. Con talked about the day a big sack of oysters arrived, but nobody had a clue how to open them.
Con said it took them two to three hours to work it out, but Basil was such an innovative person, “and everything he touched he was a winner.”
“It was a sad day when Basil left me, but I understood because he was capable of so many things.”
He went on to become the manager of Benger Packers Cooperative, and then moved back to Nelson with a job for Dalgety Stock and Station Agents Ltd.
When Basil arrived back in the South he moved up to Cromwell to help manage and restructure the Molyneux Orchards – building the company to become one of the largest in Central Otago – and most successful at growing summerfruit.
There would be trips to China and Taiwan to ‘fly the flag’ for Central Otago cherries.
Now known as 45 South Management, New Zealand’s largest exporter of cherries, the company’s chief executive Tim Jones also spoke at his funeral, having known Basil since the mid-1990s when Tim first came looking for a job.
Tim said Basil took a punt on him “and sent me off with the local ladies to work on me.”
With little industry experience and having never seen an apricot, peach or a cherry growing on a tree, Tim said there was only one block of Dawson cherries on the orchard when he first started, along with some plums, and even nashi pears.
With new cherry varieties such as Stella, Lapin and Sweetheart coming onto the market, Basil had a vision that the export cherry would be as big as the apricot, peach and nectarine.
He removed all the old trees and planted new ones. Molyneux Orchards went on to produce 500 tonnes one season, which was big back then, and Tim described how basic the technology was.
“We used to just tip all of the cherries onto the conveyor and look for the large ones.”
With export cherries on the rise and a huge worker shortage, Tim says he remembers Basil telling him, “if people walk in the door give them a job or the fruit will fall to the ground.”
This included a man with just one functioning arm who had a hook on the other hand.
Five thousand workers were needed as the plantings increased. “At the time we were struggling to attract a few hundred university students,” Tim said.
Then in 2004 Seasonal Solutions was born, as a pilot scheme with $100,000 in funding and 58 shareholders.
This season 45South has produced 2000 tonnes of export cherries – through a fully automated packhouse where every single cherry is photographed and sized.
“There have been times that the industry has been on its knees, but he has driven it to new levels of excellence,” Tim said.
“Basil brought a disjointed Summerfruit New Zealand industry back to life.”
This was a man you always wanted on your side, he added.
Involved in many other big roles in the community, including the Cromwell Rotary that was responsible for the town’s iconic big fruit sculpture, he was president in 1988 and 1989.
He and wife Lois also ran a successful cat breeding business Benger Cattery, and made the Top 10 catteries in New Zealand three years in a row. At one stage they owned a café and Basil’s love of food had his grandchildren competing for the best recipes to impress him.
When working as an agent for Dalgetys and out on the road, Basil always knew where to call in for the best morning and afternoon teas.
His neighbour of 40 years and funeral celebrant Christine Hansen said Basil was always in his garden. Christine had an aviary and Basil and Lois had many cats, so you would think there would be issues. But despite the risk to the birds, Christine came to adopt one of Basils’ cats who obviously took more of a liking to her property.
A strong advocate in the fruit growing industry and, in the community, she said he was more often asking for forgiveness than permission, but it was his huge personality that made him shine.
Another former neighbour of 19 years, and Central Otago Deputy Mayor Neil Gillespie described him as monumental, “like a mighty Totara that has fallen,” because of the huge contribution he made to fruit growing and the local workforce in particular.
“He was a really special person and meant a lot to our family. And he always threw the balls back,” he joked.
Never without a smile on his face, Basil, aka Baz to friends and family, certainly marked his leadership with plenty of humour, even back in the early days as scout leader at Millers Flat.
Known as a bit of a trickster, there was the time he encouraged the young guys on camp to nail all of the girls’ shoes to the floor and add cleaning sponges to the lamingtons.
He was a man who could smell the rain and knew where there was going to be a frost, and his grandchildren talked fondly of their love of gardening and growing vegetables, thanks to Poppa.
“You were a good man Basil Goodman. A good man,” his son-in-law Michael McHugh said at the end of his tribute at the funeral.
Photo: Basil with Tim Jones from Molyneux Orchards (now 45 South) back in the 1990s.