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Finance and Economics；Vegetable oil；What's cooking?
Edible oils are filling fuel tanks as well as bellies；
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.
石油市場變幻莫測。亞洲國家對石油的需求與日俱增，石油供應能否滿足世界需求受到廣泛質疑。人們對于原油供應能力的質疑也同樣體現在了植物性物質所壓榨出的東西身上。
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.
炒菜和醬沙拉的價格一直呈高企態勢。過去十年間，植物油的價格幾乎翻了兩翻。與其它商品一樣，它的價格在2008年創下了歷史新高。隨后的價格暴跌現已被人們淡忘：現在價格又反彈至高點附近。全球最大商品交易商(瑞士)嘉能可國際公司將向人們證實該行業的吸引力有多強：坊間盛傳該公司正在考慮投資印度食用油企業“KS食用油公司”。
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.
澳大利亞麥格理銀行科納·哈克指出炙手可熱的石油業背后隱藏著兩大結構性因素：中國和生物柴油。養活全球眾多人口和全球巨大財富導致了植物油、糧食及肉類消耗的快速增長。盡管中國及亞洲其它地區迅速飆升的石油需求正在放緩，但石油的需求增長空間仍然較大。
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.
在過去數年間，植物油出現了一種新的用途需求。生物柴油產量快速增長，消耗了全球植物油作物總量的十分之一。聯合國糧農組織彼得·梭尼斯表示，受制于原油價格波動及政府熱衷于強制使用生物燃油，生物柴油對植物油作物的消耗量到2020年有望達到五分之一。
The effect of growing demand for the two main types of vegetable oil, palm and soya (see chart), is amplified by supply problems. In the case of soya, competition for land is the main concern. Farmers in America, the world's top exporter, and Brazil, in second place, are switching to maize as sky-high prices make it more attractive.
人們對植物油的兩種主要原料棕櫚和大豆需求在不斷增加，而供應問題卻嚴重影響了此種需求。就大豆而言，如何爭取到更多的土地成為問題的關鍵。由于玉米高昂的價格優勢，全球農產品出口居首位的美國及位居第二位的巴西正將目光投向玉米種植。
Palm oil, also used to make soaps and cosmetics, comes almost exclusively from Indonesia and Malaysia. It suffers from even more acute supply problems. Already intensively cultivated and mechanised, there are few opportunities for farmers to increase output by improving yields on existing acreage. Developing and rolling out new higher-yielding strains is much easier and quicker for annual crops like wheat than for perennials such as palm trees that take time to mature and will bear fruit for many years.
生產肥皂和化妝用品的棕櫚油幾乎都產自于馬來西亞和印尼。它所面臨的供應問題就更為嚴重。盡管農民已精耕細作并實現了機械化種植，但僅憑提高現有土地面積的產出已很難讓棕櫚油產量得到大幅提升。開發和種植新型高產品種對小麥這種一年生作物會有立竿見影的成效，而棕櫚樹這種多年生植物需要很長時間才能到達成熟期并且數年之內都可產出棕櫚油。
Finding more land has unpalatable costs. Environmentalists point out that the spread of palm-oil plantations is the greatest threat to forests in Indonesia and Malaysia. In May Indonesia introduced a two-year moratorium on forest clearance in return for 1 billion, as part of a bilateral climate deal with Norway. But loopholes and exemptions mean that it may not slow down deforestation much. Like its crude counterpart, the march of the vegetable-oil business is not easily resisted.
尋找更多土地的成本代價令人難以接受。環境專家指出棕櫚油種植園的擴張成為印尼和馬來西亞的森林的最大威脅。作為與挪威雙邊氣候協定的部分內容，五月份，印尼引入兩年期森林禁止砍伐計劃以獲取10億美元的回報。但由于政策漏洞及豁免規定，該計劃對森林砍伐速度可能不會有太大的影響。與石油開發商相同，進軍植物油產業的誘惑力難以抵擋。
