Galati digs in for export-quota fight
Tony Galati wants to add up to four extra stores to his existing Spud Shed network over the next few years and is working on opening up export markets for WA potatoes.
Mr Galati has one store earmarked for Bunbury and he is considering sites in Perth's northern suburbs and Midland for two of the others.
Meanwhile, his sons Frankie and Sebastian were in South Korea this week for talks on exporting potatoes.
Mr Galati said that in recent weeks he had talks with interests in Singapore and Malaysia who wanted to import potatoes.
The export trade is not subject to the same rules and production quotas that apply under WA's heavily regulated domestic industry. As part of his plans for domestic expansion, Mr Galati said he wanted the Government to allow him to grow an extra 2000 tonnes of potatoes a year for the WA market.
"We are not asking for the world. All we want is an extra 2000 tonnes a year to support our expansion," he said.
Mr Galati said the additional tonnes would take his production up to about 8000 tonnes a year.
The request comes with Mr Galati and WA's industry regulator locked in talks aimed at averting a legal battle over allegations he has deliberately over-planted at the expense of smaller growers.
The Potato Marketing Corporation is refusing to back down after warning Mr Galati to surrender all potatoes he grows over and above his allocated quota so they can be distributed to charity.
Mr Galati is also digging in for a fight after three meetings with the PMC in the past few weeks.
He has already given away 500 tonnes of potatoes at his Spud Shed stores this year because of an oversupply. Other growers were forced to dump hundreds of tonnes or feed potatoes to livestock because of the oversupply.
Mr Galati said he was determined to continue the rapid expansion of Spud Shed stores and farming interests which stretch from the South West to Kununurra despite his latest battle with the PMC.
"We go stage by stage and every dollar we make goes back to our business," he said. "It doesn't go on to fancy cars or speedboats or holidays, it goes to expanding our businesses. We are not making a lot of money but we make enough to go around."
Mr Galati said the expansion into Kununurra, where his group is growing mangos and bananas over 200ha on the Ord River irrigation scheme, had yet to reach its full potential.
"They (the farms) are not making a fortune for me, they are just ticking over," he said.
"When we took on these farms, they were all failed farms. The reason they failed is they didn't have right people there.
"We are not going to fix them in one year. It will take time. The export potential of those farms up there is huge."
