The Southeast Missouri Port Authority had its biggest year ever in 1998, with 579,881 tons of freight passing through the port, more than doubling the 229,668 tons of 1997.

A lot of that increase was due to Consolidated Grain & Barge Company, which opened a new grain facility at the port site in 1998.

"Tonnage started increasing dramatically when Consolidated Grain opened its new grain facility," said Dan Overbey, executive director at the port.

Consolidated now has two facilities in the Cape Girardeau area, at 500 La Cruz in Cape Girardeau and in the Port complex.

Since opening at the port, Consolidated Grain and Barge Company (CGB) has processed 12.5 million bushels of grain -- including soybeans, corn, milo, wheat and specialty grains -- from its port facility.

Another $3 million bushels is processed annually at the LaCruz site.

"It has been an incredible year since we opened the facility," said John Sutton, plant manager at the BGB port facility. "We had excellent support of our farmer customers. This this has been a successful year."

Sutton added that the production could increase this year.

CGB Enterprises Inc., a Louisiana-based company, employs more than 500 workers in nine states and is still expanding.

District operations

The district headquarters for a number of district operations -- Paducah and Murray, Ky., Caruthersville, Cape Girardeau and Dorena, Mo., and Osceola, Ark. -- are located at Mound City, which also has a facility.

Christy L. Castle, communications coordinator for Consolidated at Mound City, said the company processed more than 300 million bushels company wide.

Sutton noted that the news addition to the CGB list provides state-of-the-art technology including a fully automated computer that has the ability to show a problem in 100 different points in the grain-handling system.

The Port facility is equipped with two dump pits at 1,000 bushels per hour (bph) capacity onto a 40,000 bph capacity river belt with the option of diverting to an 18,500 bph leg to bins.

"This is beneficial during harvest times, to keep the truck moving and allowing farmers to get back to their combines," said Sutton.

CGB has the diversity of handling several different commodities as well as having four storage bins with a capacity of 350,000 bushels totals.

In addition to the "truck-to-river" operation, it can also unload "rail-to-river" and load to trucks and rail into the domestic markets.

The "Beige" report

Business conditions remain strong.

The United States economy continues to operate at generally strong levels.

Tight labor markets may affect some company's plans for expansion, or relocation.

Housing markets are suddenly vibrant.

Agricultural reports are mixed. In some areas agriculture is still in the doldrums as depressed livestock and grain prices continue to squeeze farmers' profit margins. In other areas, planting progress for 1999 is still on schedule.

Prices generally remain stable, wit the exception of oil and gas and some building materials, which are in short supply.

This, in summary, is the makeup of the periodic "Beige Book" Report, which was issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently.

Representatives of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis were in Cape Girardeau Thursday, one day after the latest edition of the "Beige Book" economic outlook was released.

William Poole, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve's Eight District, didn't touch on the Beige Book report. He was here to hear comments from a number of business men and women, school and university officials, bankers and community leaders during a pair of meetings here.

"We must have a firm grasp of what is happening at the local level," said Poole. During the sessions here, a number of items were discussed, including Y2K, the economy, and the tight labor force.

When the Federal Open Market Committee meets, eight times a year, to decide what to do -- or, not do -- about interest rates, its members are basing their decisions in large part on the information culled form towns all across the country.

Seven-state outlook

The "Beige Book" for the Federal Reserve is so named for the color of its cover. The "book" highlights economic developments in eastern Missouri, Western Kentucky, Western Tennessee, Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, all of Arkansas, and Northern Mississippi. Headquartered in St .Louis, the Eighth District has three branches in Little Rock, Ark., Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn.

The Beige Book reports is not a comprehensive report, but is best described as a collection of anecdotal information compiled from various business and community leaders throughout the district.

"These contact provide the information confidentially, knowing that we use to put together a short-term `snapshot' of how the economy is doing," said Charles B. Henderson, a public affairs spokesman.

Although the Beige Book is not an in-depth report, the federal Reserve uses it as one of many tools to help determine the direction of monetary policy.

Most districts report improvements in the manufacturing -- improved in Philadelphia, strong in Chicago, okay in San Francisco, but hampered by some trade conditions. But, a big concern in the Eighth District continues to be labor markets, where more comments than usual indicate some expansion plans being put o hold because of the tight market. The trucking industry has been hit with labor shortages, nurses are in short supply throughout the district, and hotels and restaurants are reporting high turnover rates and unfilled position.

Meanwhile, residential real estate construction continues to grow in most parts of the district. Single family home building is up in Missouri and in the Cape Girardeau County area. The spring home-building season is in full swing now, and many real estate agents are calling this a seller's market.

Total loans on the books of large district banks decline 1.5 percent during a period between mid-February to Mid-April, due largely to weather hampering construction of homes.

On the farm scene, corn, cotton, soybean and winter wheat prices have changed little over the past six weeks. Hog prices, however, were up modestly, although they remain 15 percent below prices of a year ago.

Early planting-season intentions show that farmers throughout the district may plant more corn in the northern area of the district, which includes Southeast Missouri, but lean to more acres of cotton and rice in the Delta region. Soybean acreage is about the same as a year ago.

B. Ray Owen is business editor of the Southeast Missourian.