English for 精加工 and 深加工

[Kenny同志]

Many years back, I started a thread asking people to share their views on how 深加工 should be translated. I could not find this thread. If my memory serves me right, the discussion we had under it did not lead to any useful results. But I am still curious to know how this term should be translated into English, especially because it appears in the textbook I am using. 

 

Any ideas, folks?

 

Besides 深加工, I am also interested in the translation of a similar term, i.e. 精加工.

[xinoxanu]

I guess not, but isn't this what you are talking about? https://dictionary.apa.org/deep-processing

 

 

[Kenny同志]

Thanks xinoxanu. No, I am talking about these as manufacturing terms. 

[xinoxanu]

Can you give us more context, perhaps? 

[Kenny同志]

Absolutely. Here are some links: 
On 深加工: https://baike.baidu.com/item/农产品深加工/8913494?fr=aladdin

On 精加工: https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1302321719214582379.html

 

It seems 精加工 can be rendered as precision processing. 

[roddy]

In machining, you have roughing and finishing. Finishing can be 精加工, I think roughing can be 粗加工 rather than 深加工. 

[Kenny同志]

This really helps, Roddy. Thanks. Any idea about 深加工? 

[roddy]

No, I suspect it very much depends what you're working with - agricultural products might be different to ores might be different to hydrocarbons, etc. 

[xinoxanu]

This report by the UN's FAO uses the concept you are referring to as 深加工 literally as "Deep processing of agricultural products". The same for the Baike page you linked and other search results that pop up on Google.

 

If you are doing a technical translation, my advice would be to first reference the whole sentence and from then on shorten it to simply "Deep processing".

[Kenny同志]

非常謝謝兩位. Your comments are very helpful. I will come back when I find good example sentences. ?

[roddy]

The search results I'm seeing are generally sources which wouldn't have been in English originally - Vietnam, Uzbekistan, etc. I can't see "deep processing" commonly used in English-language industry sites. 

 

Here we have 'further processing' in metallurgy, used for 深加工。

[xinoxanu]

Yes, I agree with Roddy on this. I've tried to think of a translation in Spanish and French and then rework it into English... but no dice, still having trouble finding a better native-like equivalent for the latter.

 

But perhaps there's no need? After all, the concept is pretty simple and shouldn't require being super technical:

 

• Corn > Corn flour = rough processing
• Corn > Popcorn = deep processing

[Jim]

There's a thing called the NOVA classification that distinguishes four levels of food processing, with the most processed called "ultra-processed" or "highly processed" but that seems to be a very industrial, off-farm category - examples it gives are soft drinks and the like. The level below that, including canned goods etc is just called processed: http://www.fao.org/3/ca5644en/ca5644en.pdf#:~:text=The NOVA classification system groups all foods according,consumed or else made into dishes and meals.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks again folks. Your comments are all very helpful. ?