
DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200394

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   66 lines

PERDUE MOVES TO NIT

Standing in front of a giant freezer on a Norfolk International Terminal dock Friday, local officials mulled the economic benefits they're expecting the building to produce for the region and nation.

Thousands of hours of labor for longshoremen. Thirteen additional ship calls a year. New port taxes. The reduction of the trade imbalance.

Those are the perks that will come from the new 80,000-square-foot cold storage facility, proclaimed port, city and business leaders during a dedication ceremony.

Virginia International Terminals, which operates the state-owned port, spent $7.5 million on the freezer, now opened for business.

Perdue Farms, which will be the primary user, has filled the building with frozen poultry. The Dubrava, the first ship to export the company's chickens overseas from the port, was docked a few feet from the freezer and was already loaded and ready to go.

The ships will sail to Russia, Eastern Europe and the Far East and will carry 2,800 to 8,000 metric tons, which is roughly enough chicken to feed Norfolk for a year, according to Perdue Farms.

From under a tent in front of the new building, Perdue's chairman, Jim Perdue, was talking about the new facility.

He told a small crowd that, ``It will be good for the poultry industry, good for the city of Norfolk, good for the Commonwealth of Virginia and a good way to balance trade and export for the country.''

For Salisbury, Md.-based Perdue Farm, the East Coast's largest poultry producer, Norfolk is central to its processing plants in eight states. Until now, refrigerated trucks transported chickens and turkeys to 15 freezers and then transported them to ports for shipping overseas. Perdue called that a logistical challenge and costly.

The Norfolk freezer can handle about 20 truckloads of poultry a day, he said. It can hold about 15 million pounds of chicken at a time and may hold as much as 210 million pounds annually. Storage space could be tripled in size, if necessary.

The idea for a big freezer at Norfolk International Terminal's Pier 3 dates to 1994 when Pepper Laughon, president of Richmond Cold Storage, first pitched it to Perdue and other poultry processors. The freezer needed to be fully stocked if it was going to be built.

International Refrigerated Port Services and Richmond Cold Storage, its parent company, developed the specification for the freezer and will manage it.

The state's transportation secretary, Robert E. Martinez, master of ceremonies for the dedication, called the port the lifeline of Hampton Roads and urged the crowd to continue to invest in it.

``We in Virginia have recognized the need to be innovative,'' he said. ``But we're in a very cutthroat, competitive market, so don't assume the only way to go is up.''

But up is where the port is now, he said. Perdue Farms will help NIT become one of the largest poultry ports in the nation. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photos

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Jim Perdue, chairman of Perdue Farms Inc., center, greets guests at

the opening of the new 80,000-square-foot cold storage facility unit

at Norfolk International Terminals. Perdue Farms, the primary user,

has filled the building with frozen poultry, and the first ship had

already been loaded by Friday.

The cold storage facility will bring jobs, money and chicken to the

dock.