WA Potato Board Attack Repulsed

SYDNEY - Feb 16/06 - SNS -- The state of Western Australia's Agriculture Minister. Kim Chance, will not interfere with the operations of the state's potato marketing board, fearing it will hurt the industry.

Reporting the issue, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) noted the Potato Marketing Corporation controls the supply of fresh table potatoes to the domestic market, but some growers want it abolished.

The National Competition Council last year withheld almost $4 million in payments to the State Government for refusing to deregulate the potato market.

Chance argues the industry's current structure provides consumers with low and stable prices and gives growers better returns.

"Taking away regulation, particularly removing regulation in an uncontrolled way can have catastrophic consequences as we've seen in the dairy industry and other industries," he told reports with ABC.

Opposition agriculture spokesman Paul Omodei agrees the industry should remain regulated for the time being.

"The potato industry in Western Australia is complex, you need to understand why the potatoes are grown for the domestic market at certain times of the year. There's some very important lessons to be learned by what happened in the dairy industry as to what could happen to the potato industry," he said.