经济学人下载:食用油产业怎么了?

Vegetable oil
植物油

What’s cooking?
发生了什么事?

Edible oils are filling fuel tanks as well as bellies
食用油填饱了肚子还要灌满油箱

Sep 17th 2011 | from the print edition

OIL markets are full of uncertainty. Asian demand is booming and doubts abound over the ability of supply to match the world’s appetite. What goes for crude oil also applies to the stuff squeezed out of vegetable matter.

石油市场变幻莫测。亚洲国家对石油的需求与日俱增，石油供应能否满足世界需求受到广泛质疑。人们对原油的贪求目光同样落在了植物性物质所压榨出的东西身上。

The price of stir-frying and dressing a salad has rarely been higher. Over the past decade the price of vegetable oils has all but quadrupled. Like other commodities, prices hit records in 2008. The subsequent slump is now forgotten: prices are back close to the peaks. Glencore, the world’s biggest commodity trader, may be about to confirm the industry’s allure: rumours are flying that it is mulling an investment in KS Oils, an Indian edible-oil firm.

炒菜和酱沙拉的价格一直呈高企态势。过去十年间，植物油的价格几乎翻了两翻。与其它商品一样,它的价格在2008年创造了纪录。随后的价格暴跌现已被人们淡忘：现在价格又反弹至高点附近。全球最大商品交易商(瑞士)嘉能可国际公司将向人们证实该行业的吸引力有多强：坊间盛传该公司正在考虑投资印度食用油企业“KS食用油品公司”。

Kona Haque of Macquarie, an Australian bank, points to two structural factors behind oil’s sizzle: China and biodiesels. A planet with more mouths to feed and deeper pockets has led to rapid growth in consumption of vegetable oils as well as grains and meat. And although the rapid surge in demand for oils in China and the rest of Asia is slowing there is still plenty of scope for more growth.

澳大利亚麦格理银行科纳·哈克指出炙手可热的石油业背后存在着两大结构性因素：中国和生物柴油。养活全球众多人口和全球巨大财富导致了植物油、粮食及肉类消耗的快速增长。尽管中国及亚洲其它地区迅速飙升的石油需求正在放缓，但石油的需求增长空间仍然较大。

In the past few years a new source of demand has emerged for vegetable oils. Biodiesel production has rapidly accelerated and now consumes over a tenth of the global vegetable-oil crop. Depending on the crude-oil price and governments’ enthusiasm for mandating biofuels it could account for as much as a fifth by 2020, according to Peter Thoenes of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

在过去数年间，植物油出现了一种新的用途需求。生物柴油产量快速增长，消耗了全球植物油作物总量的十分之一。联合国粮农组织彼得·梭尼斯表示，受制于原油价格波动及政府热衷于强制使用生物燃油，生物柴油对植物油作物的消耗量到2020年有望达到五分之一。