《经济学人》双语：非洲农业的中间商起什么作用？(Part2)
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Stories of fraud abound. Middlemen often mix well-dried coffee with moister beans, which are less desirable.
欺诈的故事比比皆是。中间商经常把干的咖啡和不太受欢迎的湿润咖啡豆混合在一起。
Another trick is to cheat the exporters by bulking out sacks with waste husks, then bribing testers to look the other way.
另一个花招是欺骗出口商，用大量的废壳包装，然后贿赂测试人员，让他们睁一只眼闭一只眼。
Mr Lwanga says that he used to prise open his weighing scales and slip a coin into the mechanism, so that he could take more coffee from farmers than he paid them for.
兰加先生说，他过去常常撬开自己的磅秤，把一枚硬币塞进机器里，这样他就可以从农民那里得到比他所支付的更多的咖啡。
These days he has forsaken such deceit. “In business you have to be trustworthy,” he says.
现在他已经放弃了这种欺骗行为。他说:“做生意你必须守信用。”
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Reputation matters because middlemen seal deals with little more than a handshake.
信誉很重要，因为中间商只需要握个手就能敲定交易。
In the absence of strong agricultural banks, they often double as moneylenders, paying cash in advance.
在缺乏实力雄厚的农业银行的情况下，它们往往同时充当放债人，提前支付现金。
Sometimes a middleman will pre-buy an entire field at a knockdown price when the trees have only just flowered.
有时，当树木刚刚开花时，中间商会以极低的价格预先买下整块地。
That reflects fierce competition for coffee. But the relationships thus established may also keep clients loyal.
这反映了咖啡市场的激烈竞争。但是这样建立的关系也可以保持客户的忠诚。
Joseph Kisitu, a farmer, says that he usually goes to the same trader, even if others offer a better price, because the man has always been there with instant cash when he needs to sell in a hurry.
农民约瑟夫·基西图说，他通常会去同一家交易商那里，即使其他人提供更好的价格，因为当他急着要卖的时候，那人总是带着即时现金出现了。
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And farmers do need money quickly, for emergencies like hospital bills. That weakens their bargaining power.
农民们也确实急需钱来应付诸如医院账单之类的紧急情况。这削弱了他们的议价能力。
By contrast, big traders can obtain credit from exporters, which cascades down the chain to the smallest of middlemen.
相比之下，大型贸易商可以从出口商那里获得信贷，这些信贷沿着供应链向下延伸到最小的中间商。
This flow of capital only partly “fills the gap” in rural finance, says Michael Mugisha, a researcher who previously worked at a coffee exporter.
迈克尔•穆吉沙（一位曾在一家咖啡出口商工作的研究员）说，这种资本流动只是部分“填补了”农村金融的空白。
It also traps farmers in a “pervasive process of indebtedness”, leaving them with little surplus at the end of the season to invest in improving productivity.
它还使农民陷入“普遍的负债”，使他们在季末几乎没有盈余来投资于提高生产率。
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Middlemen are driven by volumes, not quality.
中间商的驱动力来自数量，而不是质量。
Some buy coffee before it is ready, says Apollo Kamugisha, an official at the coffee regulator, which is trying to impose stricter sanctions on traders who deal in unripe cherries.
咖啡监管机构的官员阿波罗·卡穆基沙表示，有些人会在咖啡尚未成熟前就购买。该机构正试图对贩卖未成熟樱桃的商人实施更严厉的制裁。
A similar challenge arises in many countries, notes Paul Stewart of TechnoServe, a non-profit that works across Africa.
在非洲各地开展工作的非营利组织TechnoServe的保罗•斯图尔特指出，类似的难题也在许多国家出现。
Farmers need incentives to deliver good coffee, “and often the only way to do that is to shorten the chain”.
农民需要激励措施来提供优质咖啡，“而做到这一点的唯一途径是缩短供应链”。
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One solution is to organise farmers into groups.
一种解决办法是将农民组织起来。
The Uganda Coffee Farmers Alliance, a producer body, is trying to revive co-operatives.
乌干达咖啡农*联民**盟，一个生产者的团体，正试图恢复合作社。
But the leaders of a group in Mityana district complain that traders slightly outbid them for their members’ coffee, and thus reap the rewards of the fertiliser and training the co-operative has provided.
但是，米蒂亚纳地区的一个组织的领导人抱怨说，商人们为其成员的咖啡出价略高于他们，从而获得了合作社提供的肥料和培训作为回报。
It takes co-operatives a fortnight or more to pay for the coffee they receive. Some are poorly managed.
合作社要花两个星期或更多的时间来支付他们收到的咖啡。其中一些质量不佳。
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An alternative model is for big exporters to buy directly from farmers.
另一种模式是大出口商直接从农民那里购买。
They increasingly source Arabica coffee this way, because the premium for certified, single-origin beans more than covers the transaction costs.
他们越来越多地以这种方式采购阿拉比卡咖啡，因为经过认证的单一产地咖啡豆的溢价超过了交易成本。
But for cheaper Robusta varieties, which make up 78% of Ugandan coffee, cutting out the middleman is usually more trouble than it’s worth.
但是对于价格更便宜的罗布斯塔咖啡品种(占乌干达咖啡的78%)来说，去掉中间商通常会带来更多的麻烦。
“You can’t be everywhere,” says an executive at one foreign-owned exporter.
“你不可能无处不在，”一家外资出口商的高管表示。
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Traders themselves feel they deserve recognition as the lifeblood of a system which, if nothing else, is unusually efficient.
商人们自己也觉得，他们理应被视为一个系统的命脉，而这个系统至少是非常高效的。
More than 3,000 of them are now members of an association which aims to raise standards and eliminate sharp practice.
他们中的3000多人现在是一个协会的成员，该协会旨在提高标准，消除欺诈行为。
“We are not here to spoil the game,” argues Amos Kasigi, its chairman.
该协会主席阿莫斯·卡西吉说：“我们不是来破坏游戏的。”
“It is the middleman who has been supporting the farmers to keep the industry running.”
“是中间商一直在维持着农民在这个行业的运行。”
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量519/941左右，分两天读完）
原文出自：2022年1月1日《The Economist》Middle East & Africa版块。
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理：Fei Min
本文编辑校对: Irene
自由英语之路