THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240473
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
A partnership of Emporia and Mechanicsville businesses announced Tuesday will build two cotton gins - one north of the James River.
The $4 million project, expected to be completed by the 1996 growing season, will involve the fifth and sixth gins to be built in eastern Virginia in the past few years. Two - one in Southampton County, another in the Holland community of Suffolk - are under construction and should open before the fall harvest.
Bob Flippin of Southside Gin Inc., Emporia, said his company and Alliance Agronomics of Mechanicsville agreed to build the two new gins because of a major expansion of cotton acreage. Virginia farmers planted 42,000 acres in 1994, and acreage is expected to almost double this year.
More expansion is expected north of the James River. One of the gins will be in the West Point/Tappahannock area, and the other in Sussex County, near Wakefield.
Flippen said the gins will have ``cyclones'' to filter lint and dust. Seeds will be stored and shipped to dairy operations in the Northeastern United States, and trash and stalks will be recycled, he said.
Flippen predicted that Virginia's cotton crop eventually could top 150,000 acres. by CNB