中國(guó)網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
|
 A man shops for eggs in a supermarket in Antwerp, Belgium on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. |
|
'Tis the season to paint Easter eggs in Europe. Now children, listen: Handle with care, they break easily — and this year there are not too many about so they are very expensive. Demand for eggs traditionally reaches its peak around the Easter holiday. This year, the egg industry has been hit by the European Union's new requirements for bigger, more animal-friendly cages for hens. The changes it brings have affected production and, combined with high feed cost, boosted consumer prices. Ahead of Easter Sunday, on April 8 or 15 depending on the religious denomination, it makes for a costly tradition on a continent where millions have grown up painting or dyeing eggs as children and are now facing economic crisis. At Warsaw's Hala Mirowska market, the egg sales of Jacek Bechcicki are down as he faces customers grumbling about high prices. "The holiday will be poorer for some of my customers," Bechcicki said. Pekka Pesonen used to color and dye eggs as a kid in his native Finland. As a rite of spring, "it was a celebration of new life," he remembers. Now, Pesonen is secretary general of a major European farm federation and is seeing how the new EU legislation has put a damper on this Easter season. "Obviously it has had an impact," he said. The European Egg Processors Association says that EU-wide production of eggs since the Jan. 1 legislative change has dropped by 10 to 15 percent, or about 200 million eggs a week. Prices have sometimes tripled on international markets over the past month, peaking at over 2 euros ($2.60) per kilogram, said Philip Van Bosstraeten of Ovobel, an international company which makes equipment for egg processing. The European Commission said that overall the price for table eggs in early March was 55 percent higher compared to the previous year. (Agencies) |
在歐洲，現(xiàn)在是繪制復(fù)活節(jié)彩蛋的時(shí)節(jié)了。但是，孩子們，聽好了：拿雞蛋要小心，它們很容易碎，而且今年沒(méi)有太多雞蛋，所以它們很貴。 傳統(tǒng)上對(duì)雞蛋的需求在復(fù)活節(jié)前后達(dá)到高峰。今年，雞蛋產(chǎn)業(yè)因?yàn)闅W盟要求給母雞提供更大、更好用的籠子的新規(guī)定而受到了沖擊。這一規(guī)定帶來(lái)的改變已經(jīng)對(duì)雞蛋生產(chǎn)造成了影響，再加上高飼養(yǎng)成本，使得消費(fèi)價(jià)格上漲了。 復(fù)活節(jié)是4月8日或15日，時(shí)間依具體教派而定。復(fù)活節(jié)前，歐洲大陸上有數(shù)百萬(wàn)民眾將繪制彩蛋，他們從小到大都這么做，然而如今他們面臨著經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)，雞蛋價(jià)格的上漲也使繪制彩蛋成了一個(gè)昂貴的傳統(tǒng)。 在華沙的哈拉米羅夫斯卡市場(chǎng)，杰克?貝克西基的雞蛋生意很冷清，因?yàn)轭櫩蛡儽г闺u蛋價(jià)格太高。貝克西基說(shuō)：“對(duì)于我的一些顧客而言，這個(gè)節(jié)日將會(huì)過(guò)得比較慘淡?！?/p> 佩卡?培松嫩小時(shí)候在他的故鄉(xiāng)芬蘭時(shí)曾經(jīng)給雞蛋涂顏料、染色。他回憶說(shuō)，作為春天的一種儀式，“這是對(duì)新生命的慶祝”。如今，培松嫩是一個(gè)大型歐洲農(nóng)場(chǎng)聯(lián)盟的秘書長(zhǎng)，他發(fā)現(xiàn)歐盟的這一新法規(guī)已經(jīng)讓復(fù)活節(jié)的氣氛變得黯淡。 他說(shuō)：“顯然新法規(guī)已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生了影響。” 歐洲雞蛋加工商協(xié)會(huì)稱，自從1月1日法規(guī)作出改變后，歐盟范圍內(nèi)的雞蛋生產(chǎn)量已經(jīng)下降了10%到15%，也就是每周減少約2億個(gè)雞蛋。 生產(chǎn)雞蛋加工設(shè)備的跨國(guó)公司Ovobel的菲利普?凡?伯斯特雷騰說(shuō)，在過(guò)去一個(gè)月里，國(guó)際市場(chǎng)上的雞蛋價(jià)格有時(shí)甚至漲到原來(lái)的三倍，最高每公斤超過(guò)了2歐元（合2.6美元）。 歐盟委員會(huì)稱，三月初食用蛋的價(jià)格總體上比去年上漲了55%。 相關(guān)閱讀 奧巴馬主持白宮滾彩蛋活動(dòng) 慶復(fù)活節(jié) 世界上最昂貴的復(fù)活節(jié)彩蛋在倫敦問(wèn)世 （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯：Julie） |
|
Vocabulary: religious denomination: 教派 make for: 導(dǎo)致 put a damper on: 澆冷水，掃……的興 table egg: 食用蛋 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
