
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 19, 1995                   TAG: 9505190075
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROSPECTS FOR INLAND PORT ARE LOOKING BETTER

An inland port in the Roanoke area would not interfere with an existing state facility in Front Royal in the upper Shenandoah Valley, Del. Creigh Deeds, R-Warm Springs, told a meeting of the World Trade Alliance of the Blue Ridge on Thursday in Roanoke.

Deeds, a member of the alliance's board, said state officials had told him the primary customers of the Front Royal facility are from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Businesses in the Blue Ridge region, which stretches from Wythe County north to Augusta County, could use such a facility of their own, he said.

Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, who also sits on the alliance board, introduced legislation to fund an inland-port study for the region during this year's General Assembly session, but the measure died in a conference committee.

"If the market is there, we can make a good case for the development of an inland port," Deeds said.

An inland port likely would include an yard where freight could be moved between trucks and trains and then shipped to Hampton Roads ports. A free-trade zone where exporters could avoid duties and local taxes would also be a plus for such a facility, said John Huddle, a Roanoke trade lawyer and the alliance's chairman.

Although much of the Front Royal facility's business comes from out of state, WLR Foods Inc., a Shenandoah Valley poultry producer, is that inland port's biggest customer, accounting for 41 percent of the port's business with its poultry exports, said Robert Rich, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service's international marketing director.

Virginia's agricultural exports increased from $1.5 billion to $3.4 billion in 1992 and fell back to $3 billion in 1993 because of a drop in exports of leaf tobacco, Rich said. Figures for 1994, however, should show an increase, he said.

Tobacco accounted for $2.2 billion of the state's agriculture exports in 1993, $1.6 billion in the form of cigarettes and $600 million in tobacco leaf, Rich said. One third of all tobacco exported from the United States passes through Virginia ports, he said.

Other exports for 1993 included $363 million in farm commodities, $267 million in processed foods, $89 million in logs and lumber and $7 million in seafood.

The alliance is offering a seminar for exporters on use of the Internet, the worldwide network of computer systems. The program will be June 1 at the Sheraton Inn Roanoke Airport. For details or to register, call (703) 983-9369.

by CNB