【精英翻譯】的部落格

Those Valentine’s Day flowers might just be from Kenya 情人節的花卉或許來自肯亞

精英翻譯社轉自http://iservice.ltn.com.tw/Service/english/english.php?engno=958950&day=2016-02-17

◎魏國金

This Valentine’s Day, there’s a good chance your flowers came from Kenya.

今年情人節，你的鮮花很有可能是來自肯亞。

"I know the flowers are for giving on Valentine’s Day," said Phanice Cherop, a worker at a flower farm in Kenya. "They are very beautiful."

「我知道這花兒是要給情人節的，」肯亞花卉農場工人切洛普說，「它們非常漂亮」。

Kenya’s cool climate and high altitude make it perfect for growing large, long-lasting roses. Such conditions have helped make Kenya become the world’s fourth-biggest supplier after the Netherlands, Ecuador and Colombia.

肯亞涼爽的氣候與高海拔使它非常適合生長碩大、持久的玫瑰花。如此條件讓肯亞繼荷蘭、厄瓜多與哥倫比亞之後，成為全球第4大玫瑰花供應國。

Cherop, a 29-year-old single mother of two, works at AAA Growers’ Simba farm in Nyahururu. She was one of 600 workers bused in from surrounding villages to pick or pack thousands of roses to be sent around the world ahead of Feb. 14.

育有2子的29歲單親媽媽切洛普在尼亞胡魯魯「AAA栽種者」公司的辛巴農場工作。她是乘坐巴士，從附近村落進入農莊的600名工人之一，他們採收或包裝數以千計的玫瑰花，以便在2月14日前將花卉送至全球各地。

Flowers are intricately tied to the global economy. When it collapsed in 2008, the cut-flower trade lost $1.5 billion the following year. International events, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and plummeting oil prices, have shaped flower fortunes for numerous Kenyan farms. Sales to oil-producing nations, such as Norway and those in the Middle East, have dropped due to their reduced spending power.

花卉市場複雜連結於全球經濟。2008年經濟崩盤時，翌年切花交易損失15億美元。包括俄羅斯在烏克蘭的戰事、暴跌的油價等國際事件，影響了許多肯亞農場的花卉營收。輸往挪威、中東等產油國家的銷售量，因其萎縮的消費能力而縮減。