By Brendan Foster
Spud king Tony Galati says he's willing to go to jail if he's forced to stop growing more potatoes than he is allowed.
Mr Galati will appear in the Supreme Court on Friday to fight an injunction taken out against him by the Potato Marketing Corporation after it claimed he was selling more than his quota of potatoes.
Tony Galati says he is prepared to go to jail 'to prove a point'.
It all started in 2013, when the regulator claimed the Spud Shed owner deliberately grew more than his 1047-tonne quota, which was part of the terms of a commercial agreement between the pair.
On Friday morning, Mr Galati told Radio 6PR he would be happy to spend time behind bars to prove a point.
"Absolutely... the fight is for the consumers as well... I'm fighting for them as well, because if they do stop us, we can't provide a cheaper product for our customers," he said.
"If they take me to court and win the injunction, that's not going to stop me. I will go out and sell spuds to my consumers.
"If I break the law, I break the law, and if they want to deal with me, they will deal with me.
"Like I said, I [am] prepared to go to jail and fight them."
Mr Galati, who owns six Spud Shed stores, said the court action hanging over him was affecting business.
"It is a huge impact because we grow spuds for our customers and we are very competitive and if we can't use our potatoes we will have to buy potatoes from other growers, therefore we have to lift our price up," he said.
"The problem won't go away until it gets deregulated, [and] because our business is expanding, we need more potatoes and we are providing a competitive product in the market place.
"The thing is, we can export to the Asian market with this free trade agreement but we can't put them in our own shops."
Mr Galati said Premier Colin Barnett's plans to dismantle the PMC – the last of its kind in Australia – in 2017 was cold comfort for his business.
"So what do I do in the next two years?" he said.
"We've got more shops coming and we need to grow these potatoes for our shops and our customers, we just can't put our business on hold.
"We are providing competition out there and we are providing a good product for our consumers, so what do I do? Stop?"
In January, he gave away 200 tonnes of spuds because they were grown outside his limit and couldn't sell them.
Mr Galati said if the PMC didn't allow him to grow more than his current quota, he would simply give his potatoes away again.