「天價」白菜與儲備豬肉:新冠疫情考驗中國食品供應
中國壽光——在通往東部小城壽光的公路上,身穿防護服的工作人員攔下汽車,給乘客測量體溫。
在辦公室也必須進行發燒檢查。許多小區整體封閉,不讓外人進入。所有的酒店關門。
壽光市距離這次冠狀病毒暴發的中心有800公里。但是,這裡嚴格的預防措施反映了這座城市對中國的重要性:它是這個國家的蔬菜基地。
這場病毒危機正在考驗中國向14億人口提供食物的能力,這是中共最引以為傲的成就之一。由於被關在家裡,加上擔心疫情可能持續數週甚至數月,中國各地的家庭都在囤積糧食,這讓商店和超市在新鮮食品的供應上面臨挑戰。許多地方已經關閉了道路,不讓車輛通過,降低了卡車運輸的速度,導致貨運成本增加。
中國官員誓言確保武漢的食品供應,這座人口1100萬的內陸城市是這次疫情的中心。壽光是中國最大的蔬菜種植、交易和運輸中心之一,向這個被封鎖的城市捐贈了一車車的蔬菜。
官員們對全國其他地方出現的供應緊張跡象保持著警惕。在許多地方,新鮮食品的零售價格已經上漲。壽光蔬菜價格指數是一個廣受關注的每日指數,上週它飆升至多年來的高點。家禽養殖戶警告,由於運輸不暢,雞飼料可能出現供應短缺,數百萬隻雞可能會餓死。
已經面臨一種危險疾病的中國禍不單行,中央政府在上週末報告,湖南省的一家養雞場暴發「高致病性」禽流感疫情,約有4500隻雞死亡,另外還撲殺了1.7萬隻。
中國壽光,人們正在將蔬菜裝車。 RAYMOND ZHONG/THE NEW YORK TIMES
近幾個月來,隨著豬瘟疫情導致中國生豬數量減少,中國的食品價格已經在節節攀升。1989年,物價上漲曾是抗議活動的起因之一,最終抗議活動以天安門廣場屠殺收場,自那以後,政府一直對通貨膨脹保持警惕。
因此,隨著中國經濟因為這次冠狀病毒的暴發而部分停滯,中國政府為保證食品供應付出了巨大的努力。
農業部命令農業部門「千方百計」增加產量,同時保持價格「基本穩定」。據官方媒體報導,一家超市因為一顆白菜賣到63.9元人民幣,而被罰款50萬元。
兩家國有食品巨頭已經接到命令,增加對武漢和湖北省的大米、麵粉、食用油和肉類的供應。天津最近宣布,方便麵巨頭康師傅已將日產量提高到400萬包。
在週一的新聞發布會上,中央官員表示,他們在湖北省周邊六個省份協調蔬菜資源,現有蔬菜庫存近6萬噸。他們還表示,在上海港附近安排了1萬噸的凍豬肉儲備,隨時準備向武漢市場投放。
儘管如此,中國在冠狀病毒感染期間保持食品供應的能力,在很大程度上取決於它對病毒傳播的控制程度。並且需要好運。
壽光市一家主要批發市場的經理王志剛表示,只要病毒不再傳播,並且城市貨運保持運作,中國的蔬菜供應應是充足的。
王志剛透過他的防護口罩說:「如果壽光被封鎖,那就無能為力了。」
乍一看,壽光這個人口不足110萬的毫無特色的城市,看上去並不像中國經濟中必不可少的節點。但是,街道兩旁的巨大溫室每年可生產450萬噸蔬菜。每年還有更多的蔬菜通過該市的批發市場流向中國各個角落。
農產品貿易在壽光創造了如此巨大的財富,以至於國有報紙《農民日報》去年將其譽為「蔬菜產業矽谷」。
批發市場經理王志剛說,近來,人們對病毒的擔憂帶動了全國對蔬菜的需求,壽光的農民已經在動用儲備。這裡的一些種植者會儲備數月量的馬鈴薯、蘿蔔、洋蔥、捲心菜和其他可以冷藏的蔬菜。
在批發市場的大門前,工作人員為將農產品運進和運出的卡車司機測量體溫。所有車輛都噴了消毒劑。外人禁止入內。
在武漢檢查站,一名司機正在被量體溫。 CHINATOPIX, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
壽光所在的沿海省份山東省迄今報告了275例新型病毒病例,比一些人口少于山東的省份還少。
上週,以警車開路的卡車車隊將350噸壽光蔬菜運到武漢。
卡車的滿載多虧了李友華這樣的人,他現年51歲,在城市附近的一個村莊種植辣椒。
上週的一個深夜,村委會在微信上呼籲,請求當地農民提供更多蔬菜以運往武漢。李友華馬上行動了起來。
他和妻子及兩個女兒拿著手電筒通宵工作。他們收穫了半噸辣椒,是正常日產量的兩倍。
李友華說,他貢獻的蔬菜能賣多少錢或何時打款,他尚未從當局那裡得到消息。他說,如果最終被當作無償贈與,他也不計較。近年來,壽光遭受特大洪災,全國各地的人們都向他和其他農民提供過援助。
李友華說:「我們不能忘記這一點。」
週六,第二輛來自壽光的卡車載著西蘭花、花椰菜、馬鈴薯和其他許多蔬菜前往武漢。
那天早上,當卡車司機等待離開市區時,他們在琢磨自己的處境。他們不知道做這份工作能拿到多少錢。但是他們知道,工作結束後,他們將被隔離在家兩個星期,這意味著失去數千美元的收入。
儘管如此,當微信上的呼籲發出時,現年34歲的馬成龍(音)立刻自願參加了。
馬成龍說:「國家有難,匹夫有責。」
馬成龍是準備從壽光運送新鮮蔬菜到武漢的司機之一。「當國家陷入困境時,我們老百姓有責任。」 RAYMOND ZHONG/THE NEW YORK TIMES
他用幾段電線來加固掛在卡車側面的紅色橫幅。橫幅上寫著「馳援武漢5000噸蔬菜」。
司機的自豪裡也摻雜著不安。一位司機只說自己姓宋,因為他擔心如果被人知道他去了武漢,家人會背上罵名。他只向妻子透露了這趟行程。
他還簽署了充分了解健康和財務風險的協議。
「我們必須聽政府的,」宋說。「政府要怎麼做就怎麼做。」
Wang Yiwei、Claire Fu對本文有研究貢獻。
Raymond Zhong是《紐約時報》駐北京科技記者。在2017年加入時報前,他在新德里為《華爾街日報》報導印度快速增長的經濟。歡迎在Twitter上關注他 @zhonggg。
翻譯:杜然、鄧妍
「天價」白菜與儲備豬肉:新冠疫情考驗中國食品供應
$9 Cabbages, Emergency Pork: Coronavirus Tests China on Food
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SHOUGUANG, China — Along the roads leading into the small eastern city of Shouguang, workers in hazmat suits stop cars and take passengers' temperatures.
中國壽光——在通往東部小城壽光的公路上,身穿防護服的工作人員攔下汽車,給乘客測量體溫。
The fever checks are mandatory at offices, too. Whole neighborhoods have been barricaded off to nonresidents. All the hotels are shut.
在辦公室也必須進行發燒檢查。許多小區整體封閉,不讓外人進入。所有的酒店關門。
Shouguang is 500 miles from the epicenter of the coronavirus. But the tight precautions reflect the city's vital importance to China: This is where the country gets its vegetables.
壽光市距離這次冠狀病毒暴發的中心有800公里。但是,這裡嚴格的預防措施反映了這座城市對中國的重要性:它是這個國家的蔬菜基地。
The virus crisis is testing China's ability to feed its 1.4 billion people, one of the Communist Party's proudest achievements. Cooped up at home and fearful that the epidemic could last weeks or even months, families across China are hoarding provisions, making it harder for shops and supermarkets to keep fresh food in stock. Many places have closed off roads to passing traffic, slowing truck shipments and raising freight costs.
這場病毒危機正在考驗中國向14億人口提供食物的能力,這是中共最引以為傲的成就之一。由於被關在家裡,加上擔心疫情可能持續數週甚至數月,中國各地的家庭都在囤積糧食,這讓商店和超市在新鮮食品的供應上面臨挑戰。許多地方已經關閉了道路,不讓車輛通過,降低了卡車運輸的速度,導致貨運成本增加。
Chinese officials have vowed to keep food flowing to Wuhan, the inland city of 11 million at the center of the outbreak. Shouguang, one of the country's biggest hubs for growing, trading and shipping vegetables, has begun donating produce by the truckload to the locked-down city.
中國官員誓言確保武漢的食品供應,這座人口1100萬的內陸城市是這次疫情的中心。壽光是中國最大的蔬菜種植、交易和運輸中心之一,向這個被封鎖的城市捐贈了一車車的蔬菜。
Officials are on alert for signs of strained supplies throughout the rest of the country. Retail prices for fresh food have crept up in many places. The Shouguang vegetable price index, a widely watched daily gauge, rocketed to a multiyear high last week. Poultry farmers are warning that supplies of chicken feed are running low because of transport restrictions and that millions of birds could die as a result.
官員們對全國其他地方出現的供應緊張跡象保持著警惕。在許多地方,新鮮食品的零售價格已經上漲。壽光蔬菜價格指數是一個廣受關注的每日指數,上週它飆升至多年來的高點。家禽養殖戶警告,由於運輸不暢,雞飼料可能出現供應短缺,數百萬隻雞可能會餓死。
As if one dangerous disease was not enough for China right now, the national government over the weekend reported a "highly pathogenic" outbreak of bird flu at a chicken farm in Hunan Province. Some 4,500 chickens had died, and 17,000 were culled pre-emptively.
已經面臨一種危險疾病的中國禍不單行,中央政府在上週末報告,湖南省的一家養雞場暴發「高致病性」禽流感疫情,約有4500隻雞死亡,另外還撲殺了1.7萬隻。
Grocery bills in China were already climbing in recent months as an epidemic of swine fever ravaged the nation's hog population. Rising consumer prices played a role in the protests that culminated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and the government has worried about inflation ever since.
近幾個月來,隨著豬瘟疫情導致中國生豬數量減少,中國的食品價格已經在節節攀升。1989年,物價上漲曾是抗議活動的起因之一,最終抗議活動以天安門廣場屠殺收場,自那以後,政府一直對通貨膨脹保持警惕。
Hence Beijing's herculean efforts to keep food moving as the coronavirus brings parts of China's economy to a near halt.
因此,隨著中國經濟因為這次冠狀病毒的暴發而部分停滯,中國政府為保證食品供應付出了巨大的努力。
The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered the farm industry to increase output "by every possible means" while keeping prices "basically stable." The authorities have made a show of punishing stores that gouge consumers — one supermarket was fined $70,000 for selling cabbage at $9 a head, according to official news media.
農業部命令農業部門「千方百計」增加產量,同時保持價格「基本穩定」。據官方媒體報導,一家超市因為一顆白菜賣到63.9元人民幣,而被罰款50萬元。
Two state-run food giants have been ordered to ramp up supplies of rice, flour, cooking oil and meat to Wuhan and Hubei Province, where the city is situated. The city of Tianjin announced recently that Kang Shi Fu, a giant maker of instant noodles, had increased production to four million noodle packets a day.
兩家國有食品巨頭已經接到命令,增加對武漢和湖北省的大米、麵粉、食用油和肉類的供應。天津最近宣布,方便麵巨頭康師傅已將日產量提高到400萬包。
In a news conference on Monday, national officials said they had coordinated with six provinces near Hubei to amass a reserve of 60,000 tons of vegetables. They also said they had readied 10,000 tons of frozen pork near Shanghai's port that could be sent to Wuhan anytime.
在週一的新聞發布會上,中央官員表示,他們在湖北省周邊六個省份協調蔬菜資源,現有蔬菜庫存近6萬噸。他們還表示,在上海港附近安排了1萬噸的凍豬肉儲備,隨時準備向武漢市場投放。
Still, China's ability to continue feeding itself during the coronavirus will depend in large part on how well it controls the spread of the virus. It will also take more than a little good luck.
儘管如此,中國在冠狀病毒感染期間保持食品供應的能力,在很大程度上取決於它對病毒傳播的控制程度。並且需要好運。
Wang Zhigang, a manager at one of Shouguang's main wholesale produce markets, said that as long as the virus was kept away and the city could keep shipments moving, China's vegetable supplies should remain ample.
壽光市一家主要批發市場的經理王志剛表示,只要病毒不再傳播,並且城市貨運保持運作,中國的蔬菜供應應是充足的。
"If Shouguang is locked down, then there's nothing we can do," Mr. Wang said through his protective face mask.
王志剛透過他的防護口罩說:「如果壽光被封鎖,那就無能為力了。」
At first glance, Shouguang, a nondescript city of 1.1 million people, does not look like an indispensable node in China's economy. But the vast greenhouses that line the streets produce 4.5 million metric tons of vegetables a year. A far greater amount moves through the city's wholesale markets annually en route to every corner of China.
乍一看,壽光這個人口不足110萬的毫無特色的城市,看上去並不像中國經濟中必不可少的節點。但是,街道兩旁的巨大溫室每年可生產450萬噸蔬菜。每年還有更多的蔬菜通過該市的批發市場流向中國各個角落。
The produce trade has created such immense wealth in Shouguang that Farmers' Daily, a state-run newspaper, last year hailed the city as the "Silicon Valley of the vegetable industry."
農產品貿易在壽光創造了如此巨大的財富,以至於國有報紙《農民日報》去年將其譽為「蔬菜產業矽谷」。
Recently, as virus concerns have driven up demand for vegetables across the country, farmers in Shouguang have been tapping their reserves, according to Mr. Wang, the wholesale market manager. Some growers here keep months' worth of potatoes, radishes, onions, cabbages and other vegetables that can weather cold storage.
批發市場經理王志剛說,近來,人們對病毒的擔憂帶動了全國對蔬菜的需求,壽光的農民已經在動用儲備。這裡的一些種植者會儲備數月量的馬鈴薯、蘿蔔、洋蔥、捲心菜和其他可以冷藏的蔬菜。
At the front gate of the wholesale market, workers check the temperatures of the truck drivers who bring produce in and take it out. All vehicles are sprayed with disinfectant. Outsiders are forbidden.
在批發市場的大門前,工作人員為將農產品運進和運出的卡車司機測量體溫。所有車輛都噴了消毒劑。外人禁止入內。
Shandong, the coastal province where Shouguang is situated, has so far reported 275 cases of the new virus, fewer than some less-populated provinces.
壽光所在的沿海省份山東省迄今報告了275例新型病毒病例,比一些人口少于山東的省份還少。
Last week, 350 tons of Shouguang produce traveled to Wuhan on a convoy of trucks led by a police car.
上週,以警車開路的卡車車隊將350噸壽光蔬菜運到武漢。
The trucks were full thanks to people like Li Youhua, 51, who grows chili peppers in a village near the city.
卡車的滿載多虧了李友華這樣的人,他現年51歲,在城市附近的一個村莊種植辣椒。
Late one night last week, the village committee put out a call on the messaging app WeChat, asking local farmers for extra produce that they could send to Wuhan. Mr. Li swung into action.
上週的一個深夜,村委會在微信上呼籲,請求當地農民提供更多蔬菜以運往武漢。李友華馬上行動了起來。
He, his wife and their two daughters grabbed flashlights and worked through the night. They harvested half a ton of chilies, twice their normal daily output.
他和妻子及兩個女兒拿著手電筒通宵工作。他們收穫了半噸辣椒,是正常日產量的兩倍。
Mr. Li said he had not yet heard from the authorities about when or what he might be paid for his contribution. If it ends up being a gift, that would be all right by him, he said. When Shouguang suffered catastrophic flooding in recent years, people from across China came to his and other farmers' aid.
李友華說,他貢獻的蔬菜能賣多少錢或何時打款,他尚未從當局那裡得到消息。他說,如果最終被當作無償贈與,他也不計較。近年來,壽光遭受特大洪災,全國各地的人們都向他和其他農民提供過援助。
"We cannot forget that," Mr. Li said.
李友華說:「我們不能忘記這一點。」
On Saturday, a second caravan of trucks from Shouguang set out for Wuhan bearing broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes and more.
週六,第二輛來自壽光的卡車載著西蘭花、花椰菜、馬鈴薯和其他許多蔬菜前往武漢。
As the trucks' drivers waited to leave the city that morning, they pondered what they had gotten themselves into. They were not sure how much they would be paid for the job. But they knew that when it was finished, they would be quarantined at home for two weeks, meaning potentially thousands of dollars in forgone income.
那天早上,當卡車司機等待離開市區時,他們在琢磨自己的處境。他們不知道做這份工作能拿到多少錢。但是他們知道,工作結束後,他們將被隔離在家兩個星期,這意味著失去數千美元的收入。
Still, Ma Chenglong, 34, volunteered right away when the call went out on WeChat.
儘管如此,當微信上的呼籲發出時,現年34歲的馬成龍(音)立刻自願參加了。
"When the country is in trouble, we common people have a duty," Mr. Ma said.
馬成龍說:「國家有難,匹夫有責。」
He was using lengths of wire to reinforce a red banner that had been hung on the side of his truck. The banner read, "Rushing to Wuhan's rescue with 5,000 tons of vegetables."
他用幾段電線來加固掛在卡車側面的紅色橫幅。橫幅上寫著「馳援武漢5000噸蔬菜」。
The drivers' pride was mixed with trepidation. One driver gave only his surname, Song, because he was afraid his family would be stigmatized if people heard he was traveling to Wuhan. The only person he had told about his journey was his wife.
司機的自豪裡也摻雜著不安。一位司機只說自己姓宋,因為他擔心如果被人知道他去了武漢,家人會背上罵名。他只向妻子透露了這趟行程。
He, too, had signed up fully aware of the health and financial risks.
他還簽署了充分了解健康和財務風險的協議。
"We have to listen to the government," Mr. Song said. "Whatever the government wants, that's how it's going to be."
「我們必須聽政府的,」宋說。「政府要怎麼做就怎麼做。」
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