ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612170002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: First in a series.
COAL TRAINS rumbling toward Atlantic seaports have long reminded Western Virginians of how much their economy depends on exports to other countries. Coal is still important, of course. But the face of the export business is changing rapidly across America, and the changes add up to exciting new opportunities for this neck of the woods as well.
What's changing?
*Export business is growing fastest in small and medium-sized areas - like the Roanoke Valley.
Official export figures are imprecise, to put it mildly. Lost in the numbers for any particular locality, for example, is the value of component parts manufactured there and ultimately bound for export, but immediately bound for assembly elsewhere in the United States.
Still, the overall trend is compellingly clear. According to new Commerce Department data, the fastest-growing metro-area merchandise exporter from 1994 to 1995 was LaCrosse, Wis. While the country's biggest metro areas continue to dominate the export figures, all the top 10 percentage gainers had metro-area populations of less than 1 million; only two of the top 25 - Memphis and Buffalo - had metro-area populations of at least 1 million.
The year before that, the value of merchandise exports credited to the Roanoke area rose almost $32 million, or 19.4 percent, enough to rank Roanoke 80th out of 256 metro-area exporters in the country. Danville, where exports grew more than 17 percent, ranked 99th nationally.
In the past 12 months alone, says Joseph Robinson, the Roanoke-based international-marketing manager for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, he is aware of increases totaling $40 million to $45 million in manufacturing and service exports from Western Virginia.
*The products exported are becoming more diverse.
In Western Virginia, basic goods like furniture, wood products and factory-built housing are significant sources of export business. But the region's exports now also include such items as medical technology, computer-software technology, telecommunications and automation equipment, and fiber-optic components.
Increasingly, exports are competitive overseas by virtue of the value added to them, rather than the low cost of producing them.
*Exports increasingly are produced not by Fortune 500 companies but by small and mid-sized firms.
Nationally, companies with 500 or more employees are still likeliest to export, while those with fewer than five are least likely. But the gap is narrowing. Western Virginia exporters, Robinson says, include companies with only a handful of employees.
Indeed, smaller firms with little experience in exporting in some ways have an advantage over the big boys that traditionally have dominated America's export business. Smaller companies tend to be more flexible, more efficient with export-certification requirements, and quicker to react to changing market conditions.
All of which is to note that Western Virginia is becoming embedded in a global economy. Residents, businesses and community leaders would do well to recognize the trend, and take greater advantage of it.
Next: Why is it important for our region to expand its exports?
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB