PICTURE the scene: tonnes of produce sits rotting in fields as government inspectors stop and search vehicles for contraband vegetables. This isn’t Communist Russia — this is Western Australia in 2015.

A WA farmer is giving away 200 tonnes of ‘illegal’ spuds as a public protest against a bizarre, Soviet-style Ministry of Potatoes, which imposes strict controls on the production and distribution of the vegetable.

Like in Soviet Russia, the WA Government wants to control supply to keep prices steady.

In WA, the powerful Potato Marketing Corporation controls who can grow potatoes, how many hectares can be planted and the varieties produced.

The PMC, established under the Marketing of Potatoes Act 1946, also has the power to search vehicles suspected of carrying more than 50kg of potatoes, demand the details of the driver and impound any ‘illegal’ potatoes.

Tony Galati, who has been battling the regulator for the last 20 years, is facing the threat of prosecution for growing about 10 per cent more than his allotted potato quota, The Australian revealed this week.

Perth potato king gives away potatoes Perth farmer Tony Galati has started giving away his potatoes in protests against WA's potato laws. Courtesy: Sunrise/Channel Seven

SPUD RULES GIVE GROWER THE CHIPS

NO ABOLISHING POTATO LOBBY IN WA

Mr Galati began giving away the roughly 50,000 4kg bags at his Spudshed stores today. The potatoes would be worth about $600,000 at most supermarkets, where potatoes usually sell for $3 a kilo.

The Barnett government has refused to abolish the outdated PMC for at least two years until the next election, despite a report from its own Economic Regulation Authority in favour of the move, and evidence that the bureaucracy pushes up costs and stifles productivity.

The Labor opposition is leading the growing calls for the PMC to be scrapped. Opposition spokesman Ben Wyatt said the heavy regulation of potatoes in WA was “well past its use by date” and stymied productivity and choice for consumers.

The PMC is the last regulator of its kind in Australia, and widely considered an anachronism in a free market. It sets the price growers receive and acts as a monopoly wholesaler.

Around 80 farms pay licence fees under the system, and growers fear many could go out of business if the industry were deregulated.

Simon Breheny, director of the Legal Rights Project at free-market think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs, said the PMC was a Soviet-style form of industry control designed to protect potato farmers at massive cost to consumers.

“The story of the WA potato farmer giving away tonnes of produce is reminiscent of crops left to rot in Soviet farming collectives,” he said. “It’s an extraordinary situation for potato farmers to be in.”

Bodies like the PMC were once common in a range of primary industries including milk, eggs and wheat — milk pricing and supply were regulated by state and federal governments until the late ‘90s, for example.

Mr Breheny said history showed removing price controls resulted in lower costs for consumers. “Competition means some producers will survive and others won’t, but that is the reality of a free market. At the end of the day the outcomes for consumers are always better with greater competition.”

The WA Potato Growers Association is in favour of keeping the PMC, with chief executive Jim Turley calling for Mr Galati to be prosecuted for overplanting.

“We have a regulated system of 1000 tonnes a week. If all of a sudden someone wants to give away 200 tonnes, that is going to affect the price of potatoes,” he told The Australian.

The PMC has been contacted for comment.

frank.chung@news.com.au