VOA慢速英语2014 西非可可走私增加

 

AS IT IS 2014-09-24 Cocoa Smuggling¹ Increases in West Africa 西非可可走私增加

People have been illegally transporting, or smuggling, cocoa beans between Ivory² Coast and neighboring Ghana for many years. Ivorian growers smuggled⁴ their cocoa beans into Ghana because prices were higher and more dependable there. But that changed. The Ghanaian currency, or money, has lost value recently. And Ivory Coast has become more secure, following a period of unrest. Now, Ghanaian farmers are smuggling their beans into Ivory Coast, where they get more money for them. 

The government in Ivory Coast has set a price for cocoa beans. It wants to make sure the Ivorian cocoa farmers make enough money from their crops to keep the beans in the country. 

At the same time, Ghana’s money, the cedi, has dropped in value against the dollar by more than 40 percent. This has caused a loss of profits for the country’s cocoa growers. They can make more money if they smuggle³ their crop to Ivory Coast.

Alfred Allotey is a cocoa storage manager for a company called PBC Limited.

“The farmers are compelled to give most of their produce to the buyers from Ivory Coast so they can get enough money for their children; it is not that they are willing. It is the situation that is compelling them to do so.”

Ghanaian farmers who do not send their cocoa beans to Ivory Coast are urging the government to stop competing farmers from doing so.

James is one of those farmers pressuring the government to stop the smuggling.

“Ghana is our country. We use the cocoa to pay our men, to build our hospitals and all kinds of roads. If we don’t stop them, our country is going to go down.”

One way to slow the smuggling would be to increase the price of cocoa in Ghana. But Ghana has a budget deficit⁵ so it does not have the money to support such a move.

As long as buyers in Ivory Coast will pay more for Ghana’s higher-quality beans, the smuggling is likely to continue. And some Ivorians say nothing is wrong with that trade.

Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer and exporter of the cocoa bean. These beans are needed to make chocolate. Ivory Coast, Ghana and other West African countries together produce more than sixty-five percent of the world’s cocoa crops. Industry experts estimate that up to 100,000 tons of beans have been smuggled into the Ivory Coast from Ghana since last October. Industry officials say they will meet to talk about how the two countries can work together to fight the smuggling.

1 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

2 ivory   

n.象牙，乳白色；adj.象牙制的，乳白色的

参考例句：

• My grandmother has some jewelry made of ivory.我祖母有一些象牙首饰。
• It is carved from ivory.它是用象牙雕成的。

3 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

4 smuggled   

水货

参考例句：

• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Those smuggled goods have been detained by the port office. 那些走私货物被港务局扣押了。 来自互联网

5 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。