安徽省啓動小麥臨時收儲
A Chinese province is buying up mouldy and damaged wheat at above market prices in an effort to assist flood-hit farmers that will further degrade the quality of grain in China’s state reserves system.
中國一個省正以高於市場的價格收儲發黴損壞的小麥，以求幫助遭受洪災的農民，但此舉將進一步降低中國國家儲備體系的儲備糧質量。
Starting this week, Anhui has established a temporary reserve to buy wheat with up to 20 per cent substandard kernels, above the normal 10 per cent limit, for prices up to 46 per cent above the market price. The purchase plan will run through to August.
安徽省本週啓動小麥臨時收儲，收購含有至多20%不完善粒的小麥，高於正常的10%上限，而價格高出市場價格至多46%。這個小麥臨時收儲方案將執行至8月底。
Torrential rains and a huge tornado have killed about 300 people this summer along the Yangtze River valley and in northern China’s jagged Taiheng mountains. The flooding has badly damaged the wheat crop in Anhui province, the nation’s third-largest producer.
今年夏天，暴雨和一場巨大的龍捲風已在長江流域和鋸齒形的華北太行山地區造成約300人遇難。洪水已嚴重損壞安徽省（全國第三大產地）的小麥作物。
While temporarily underpinning growers’ revenues, the purchases could compound China’s sticky problem of excess grain stockpiles. Beijing this year halted a programme to buy corn at above-market prices, which had distorted global markets and left China with a surplus of grain of dubious quality.
儘管此舉可以暫時支撐種植者的收入，但這些收購可能加劇中國糧食庫存過剩的棘手問題。今年北京方面叫停了一個以高於市場的價格收儲玉米的計劃，此前該計劃扭曲了全球市場，並使中國擁有過多質量可疑的穀物。
Anhui expects to purchase 500,000 tonnes of the poor-quality wheat, more than twice the amount the province bought through its temporary reserves programme last year.
安徽預計將購買50萬噸劣質小麥，是該省去年臨時收儲計劃購買量的兩倍多。
“The government wanted to let the market digest the substandard wheat at first, but given the recent flood it has decided to limit farmers’ losses by imposing this temporary purchasing policy,” an official from Anhui’s provincial grain authority said.
“政府最初希望讓市場消化掉不合格的小麥，但鑑於近期的洪水，政府決定通過實施這項臨時收儲政策，限制農民的損失，”安徽省糧食主管部門的一位官員表示。
He added that the cost of the measure had initially delayed its implementation. “We need to protect farmers’ interests but we also need to cut the government’s fiscal burden,” he said. “The government has a huge fiscal burden.”
他補充說，這項措施的成本最初推遲了它的實施。“我們需要保護農民的利益，但我們也需要減輕政府的財政負擔，”他表示，“政府有巨大的財政負擔。”
In recent years, wheat grown in Anhui had flowed into normal markets, local farmers said, rather than the state reserves set up to prop up prices at harvest time and provide supply during shortages. The low level of state buying in Anhui contrasted with neighbouring Henan, the nation’s top producer, where Chinese journalists have witnessed farmers pressing reserve officials to buy sprouted or mouldy wheat.
當地農民表示，近年安徽省種植的小麥流入正常市場，而不是國家收儲體系；後者的目的是在豐收時支撐價格，在歉收時提供貨源。安徽省低水平的國家收儲與鄰近的河南省（全國最大產地）形成對比；中國記者曾在河南省目睹農民們殷切要求收儲官員買下發芽或發黴變質的小麥。
“It’s mainly because of the rainy weather. When the farmers harvested the wheat it was raining all the time and hence they couldn’t properly dry it. Some of the wheat went bad,” the Anhui grains official said.
“這主要是因爲陰雨天氣。當農民們收割小麥時，雨下個不停，因此他們無法讓小麥好好幹燥。一些小麥壞了，”上述安徽省糧食官員表示。
The floods have also dented demand for feed grains, the normal use for wheat too spoilt to make into bread or noodles. Flooding along the Yangtze and in eastern China knocked out pig and poultry farms, thus reducing demand for feed.
洪水還削弱了對飼料糧的需求；變質程度使其不適合做成饅頭或麪條的小麥，通常被用作飼料糧。長江流域和華東的洪災沖毀了養豬場和家禽養殖場，從而降低了飼料需求。
