经济学人:埃塞俄比亚的商品交易所:高科技,低影响(1)

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　　财经

　　The Ethiopia’s Commodity Exchange: High-tech¹, low impact

　　埃塞俄比亚的商品交易所：高科技，低影响

　　A state-of-the-art commodity exchange struggles with the basics.

　　该国最先进的商品交易所仍在基础层面挣扎前行。

　　ON THE walls of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in Addis Ababa, the capital, hang glossy² black-and-white photographs of provincial³ market towns and rustic⁴ life.

　　在亚的斯亚贝巴（埃塞俄比亚首都）埃塞俄比亚商品交易所的墙上，悬挂着平滑的地方城镇集市和乡村生活的黑白相片。

　　For the merchants and brokers⁵ striding across its high-tech trading floor they serve as a reminder⁶ that the ECX, sub-Saharan Africa’s most modern commodity exchange outside Johannesburg, exists for a simple, practical purpose: to transform Ethiopian agriculture.

　　商人和经纪人快步走过高科技的交易大厅，他们令人意识到商品交易所（亚撒哈拉地区除约翰内斯堡外现代化程度最高的商品交易市场）的存在是为了一个简单而实际的目的，即让埃塞俄比亚的农业转型。

　　埃塞俄比亚商品1.jpeg

　　It has some way to go.

　　它仍有一些路要走。

　　By connecting smallholder farmers to global markets, the exchange, launched with a fanfare⁷ in 2008, was supposed to help reduce hunger.

　　在2008年，交易所高调宣告将小农与全球市场连接起来，期望可以帮助减少饥荒。

　　The hope was it would reduce price volatility⁸ and incentivise farmers to plant crops.

　　也希望可以帮助减少价格波动和鼓励农民种庄稼。

　　But staple⁹ foods such as haricot beans today account for less than 10% of its trade.

　　但主要农产品比如扁豆如今却占了不到10%的贸易。

　　Its annual turnover¹⁰—worth about $1bn—is dominated instead by two export crops, coffee and sesame seeds.

　　它的年营业额—大约价值10亿美元—是由占主导地位的咖啡豆和芝麻带来的。

　　In 2015, despite a dire¹¹ drought, Ethiopia did avoid famine, but the ECX played little role: its maize¹² and wheat contracts had lapsed¹³ by then because of concerns that exports would jeopardise domestic food supplies.

　　2015年，尽管出现了干旱，埃塞俄比亚也避免了饥荒，但交易所几乎没有起到作用：由于担心粮食出口会危及国内粮食供应使得玉米和小麦的合约在那时已经失效。

　　Cutting out middlemen seems not to have done much for smallholders: studies suggest that the share of international prices received by coffee farmers has barely budged¹⁴ over the past decade.

　　减少中间商似乎并没有给小农带来太多（帮助）：研究表明，国际咖啡价格中咖啡农的分成在过去十年几乎没有变动。

　　Exporters complain about government price-meddling.

　　出口商抱怨政府干预价格。

　　The ECX’s founder¹⁵, Eleni Gabre-Madhin, who left the exchange in 2012, worries that momentum¹⁶ has been lost.

　　这个交易所的创始人，Eleni Gabre-Madhin，在2012年离开了交易所，她担心势头已经过了。

　　The exchange remains¹⁷ restricted to simple spot-trading.

　　交易所仍局限于简单的现货交易。

　　Futures¹⁸ contracts, which help traders manage price fluctuations¹⁹, were supposed to be introduced within five years, but are still some way off.

　　可以帮助交易商避免价格波动的期货合约，应该会在五年内引入，但仍有一定的距离。

　　1.serve as 担任；充当

　　例句:He volunteered to serve as the manager of our department store.

　　他自荐当我们商场的经理。

　　2.Cut out 切断；删去

　　例句:He will have his work cut out to get into the team.

　　他要进入该队困难重重。

　　3.sesame seed 芝麻

　　例句:Sesame seed is eatable and can be used as oil plants.

　　芝麻既可食用又可作为油料。

　　4.account for 对...负责人；对...作出解释

　　例句:How do you account for the company's alarmingly high staff turnover?

　　你怎么解释这家公司高得令人忧虑的人员流动率？

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