1. Once smallholder farmers in the Kenyan village of Masii have picked their crops, all they can do is wait until a buyer trucks through. The system works fairly well for beans and corn, but mangoes—the area’s other main crop—spoil more quickly. If the trader is late, they rot.
肯亞密西村（Masii）的小農戶採摘完農產品後，只能等待採購商開著卡車來收購。這種模式對於大豆和玉米銷售來說運行良好，但是對於該地區另一主要農作物芒果則並不適用。相比大豆和玉米，芒果更易腐爛，若採購商來晚了，就都壞了。
2. 「We lose market because the mangoes go spotty,」 says Obadiah Kisaingu, chair of the Masii Horticultural Farmers』 Cooperative Society. He estimates 40% of the co-op’s mango crop is lost to spoilage. But a simple coating could change that. A California company has created a formulation that doubles—or for some foods even triples—the shelf life of fresh produce, enabling farmers like Kisaingu to access far-off, larger markets.
密西村園藝場主合作社主席俄巴底亞•基辛古（Obadiah Kisaingu）表示：「芒果很容易長斑點，所以銷路不好。」他估計，合作社因腐爛而損失的芒果產量約佔總產量的40%。但是，一個簡單的塗層技術便能解決這個問題。加利福尼亞的一家公司研發了一種塗層配方，可將新鮮農產品貨架期延長一倍，有些食品貨架期甚至可延長兩倍。如此一來，像基辛古這樣的小農場主可將農產品銷往更遠、更廣闊的市場。
3. Apeel Sciences Inc., based in Santa Barbara, exceeded a $1 billion valuation in May when it received $250 million in financing from Oprah Winfrey and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd., adding to earlier investments from Andreessen Horowitz and other venture capitalists. (Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg Businessweek, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz.) On Oct. 27 the International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s private-sector arm, announced a $30 million investment in Apeel, a move that will open networks in East Africa, South America, and, pending regulatory approval, Southeast Asia. Singapore owned investment company Temasek Holdings Private Ltd. and food-focused impact investor Astanor Ventures are partners in the equity deal.
Apeel科技公司總部位於加利福尼亞州聖塔芭芭拉（Santa Barbara），今年5月份完成了2.5億美元融資，投資方為媒體女王奧普拉·溫弗瑞（Oprah Winfrey）和新加坡主權財富基金——政府投資有限公司（GIC Pte Ltd.）。加上此前獲得的安德森·霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）（本刊母公司彭博資訊是該基金的投資方之一）和其他風險投資家的投資，Apeel公司的估值已超過10億美元。10月27日，世界銀行專門投資私營企業的下屬機構國際金融公司（International Finance Corp）宣布向Apeel公司注資3000萬美元，此舉將開放東非、南美和東南亞地區（其中在東南亞仍有待監管部門審批）的市場網絡。此外，新加坡政府擁有的投資公司「淡馬錫控股私人有限公司（Temasek Holdings Private Ltd.）」和專注於投資食品領域的影響力投資人Astanor Ventures也進行了跟投。
註：
1、 新加坡政府投資公司（Governmentof Singapore Investment Corp，簡稱GIC）：成立於1981年5月22日，是新加坡最大的國際投資機構，其主要任務是管理新加坡的外匯儲備，跨出新加坡國界向海外大舉投資。
2、 國際金融公司（International Finance Corp, IFC）：成立於1956年7月，是世界銀行集團的成員之一，1957年成為聯合國的一個專門機構。輔助世界銀行，通過貸款或投資入股的方式，向成員國特別是發展中國家的私人企業提供資金，以促進成員國經濟的發展。
3、 淡馬錫控股（私人）有限公司（Temasek Holdings Private Ltd.）：是一家設立在新加坡的投資公司，新加坡政府財政部對其擁有100%的股權。
4、 Astanor Ventures：私募股權投資公司，由從企業家轉型為投資者的 Eric Archambeau 創立，旨在幫助雄心勃勃、目標明確的創始人，在可持續農業食品領域建立全球性公司。
4. 「This is a way to almost leapfrog the necessity of cold-storage chains and bring products to mature markets, where farmers can get better value for their crops,」 says Stephanie von Friedeburg, the IFC’s interim managing director. More time for fresh produce on grocers』 shelves means less food waste—a $2.6 trillion problem, according to the United Nations』 Food and Agriculture Organization. Project Drawdown, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that analyzes climate solutions, says fixing it would be one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
國際金融公司的臨時董事總經理史蒂芬妮•馮•弗裡德堡（Stephanie von Friedeburg）說:「這種方法基本上無需冷藏鏈就能將農產品引進成熟市場，而在這些成熟市場，農作物能賣出更好的價錢。」新鮮農產品的貨架期越長，意味著食物浪費越少——根據聯合國糧農組織的數據，食物浪費每年造成經濟損失約2.6萬億美元。總部位於舊金山的非營利組織Project Drawdown致力於分析氣候變化解決方案，該組織表示，解決食物浪費問題是減少溫室氣體排放最有效的方法之一。
5. The investment brings Apeel closer to what James Rogers, 35, envisioned when he founded the company eight years ago. Rogers, who has a Ph.D. in materials science, wanted to solvethe problem for food much in the same way that oxide barriers preventing rust have achieved for steel. He developed a natural, tasteless, and odorless protective coating from plant material—stems, leaves, skins, basically whatever gets discarded—that maintains the freshness of food for longer by holding water inand keeping oxygen out. The product extends the sweet spot between ripening and rot. And best of all, the treated produce doesn’t require refrigeration, says Rogers, the chief executive officer.
現年35歲的詹姆斯•羅傑斯（James Rogers）在八年前創建Apeel公司，而現在的這輪融資讓他離實現原來的設想又近了一步。羅傑斯是材料學博士，希望解決食品腐爛的問題，而採用的方法與給鋼鍍上一層氧化物來防止生鏽頗有相似之處。他開發出一種天然、無味、無嗅的保護塗層，這種塗層由植物的莖、葉和外皮製成，基本上一切植株的廢棄部分都可以使用，並通過留住水分、隔絕氧氣，來延長食物的保鮮期。執行長羅傑斯稱，這種塗層延長了成熟和腐爛之間的最佳賞味時間。最重要的是，經過處理的產品無需冷藏。
6. Apeel traveled a long road to get here. It was six years from launch before products applied with the substance were in stores. Whether the company can cost-effectively reach small farmers in far-flung areas still remains a challenge. Rival technologies include Bluapple, which isolates excess ethylene—a hormone that triggers ripening in some produce—and antimicrobial packaging. Blasting foods with blue light, radiowaves, or plasma has shown potential in the lab, but those methods aren’t yet commercialized.
Apeel花了相當長的時間才取得如今的成就。該技術研發開始六年後，塗上保護層的產品才上市銷售。然而，能否以較低的成本惠及偏遠地區的小農戶，這對於Apeel而言仍舊是一項挑戰。與之相互競爭的技術包括Bluapple和抗菌包裝，前者可以分離出過量的乙烯，而乙烯是一種能催熟某些農產品的激素。在實驗室中，用藍光、無線電波或等離子體噴吹食物潛力十足，但這些方法尚未實現商業化。
7. Apeel-treated fruits and vegetables are already in the largest grocery chains in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, and the U.S., as well as Walmart Inc., and the company recently gained regulatory approval in Kenya, Uganda, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. 「We have 50% less waste of Apeel-treated produce and 30% more sales,」 says Mario Slunitschek, a vice president at Edeka, which operates more than 11,000 grocery stores in Germany.
經Apeel處理的水果蔬菜已經打入了德國、丹麥、瑞士和美國最大的連鎖超市，以及像沃爾瑪這樣的企業。公司最近還獲得了肯亞、烏幹達、哥斯大黎加、哥倫比亞和厄瓜多等國監管部門的批准。「我們的農產品經Apeel處理後，浪費率減少了50%，銷售額增加了30%。」艾德卡集團副總裁馬裡奧·蘇尼柴克（Mario Slunitschek）這樣說道，該集團在德國坐擁11000餘家超市。
8. The lack of access to cold-storage infrastructure raises farmers』 costs while reducing their income. Fruit picked too early doesn’t develop as much sugar, so it’s less sweet. But harvesting late risks the fruit going to rot. So Kisaingu’s co-op members gather only a small amount at a time, as the fruit ripens. Repeated trips to the field are labor-intensive, while frequent visits from the traders raise their costs and reduce the amount they』ll pay for the co-op’s mangoes. Such stagnated harvesting closes the doors of big distributors, which want to make large purchases all at once and fly tree-ripened fruit overseas, or mature the earlier-picked produce in cold storage in Europe, a key market.
缺乏冷藏設施會增加農民開銷，同時降低農民的收入。水果採摘太早，產生的糖分太少，甜度就不夠；但採摘過晚，就要冒著水果腐爛的風險。所以在水果成熟的季節，基辛古的合作社成員每次也只能採摘一小部分。農民多次往返果園費時費力，商家多次前來收貨也導致自身成本增加，付給合作社購買芒果的價款也會下降。這種低效的採摘方式使合作社的農產品被大型分銷商拒之門外，後者希望一次性採購大量水果，將已經成熟的水果空運至海外市場，或將較早採摘的水果存放在歐洲這一關鍵市場的冷庫裡慢慢成熟。
9. 「Apeel has huge potential to turn subsistence farmers in Africa into commercial farmers,」 says Christina Owen, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which helped Apeel launch with a $100,000 grant. 「That means more money in pockets, and more food in bellies.」
比爾&梅琳達基金會在Apeel公司成立的時候向公司資助了10萬美元。現在，基金會的高級項目負責人克裡斯提娜·歐文（Christina Owen）說：「Apeel公司具有巨大的潛力，可以把非洲勉強餬口的農民變成商業農民。這意味著農民更加富有，食物消費也更充分。
翻譯組：