Agro-food Cooperatives Extremadura denounces the increase in agricultural insurance by 300%

Agro-food Cooperatives Extremadura has highlighted the decrease in insurance hiring agrarians due to an increase in the cost of up to 300% in policies.

This union of cooperatives affirms that there has been a “disruption” in the contracting of agricultural insurance in crops that “compromises your normal hiring“and whose causes are found in the new agricultural insurance plan, which contemplates a reduction in the base subsidy or the elimination of the subsidization of surcharges, among other aspects, together with the increase in rates and the application of the new table of surcharges and RAS.

The case is more pressing in cherry cultivationwhere last year it had an “exceptional accident rate” and which has generated increases in the policies that Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias is preventing from taking out insurance “for the simple fact of having suffered meteorological adversities in the last two campaigns”, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias has pointed out in a press release and collected by Europa Press.

The same situation is being seen in the tomato crops for industry and tobacco in Extremadura, whose producers are receiving policies with a 200% increase in price.

Furthermore, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Extremadura estimates that other policies such as those of fruit trees, vineyards, olive groves and cerealsas well as withdrawal insurance, will suffer these same increases when the contracting period begins in the next campaign.

Given the increase in accidents in recent years, Agroseguro has increased rates and eliminated coveragewhile increasing surcharges to protect the insurance system, Cooperatives pointed out.

“In fact, the new table of surcharges condemns farmers and ranchers to maximum surcharges even when their ratio of accident rate is below technical balance,” explained the Hacex Extremadura insurance brokerage.

“When farmers have suffered adversity of a medium or serious nature in the last 10 years, something normal if we take into account the recurrence and persistence of climate damage, the insured will remain recharged. And this, together with the elimination of the subsidization of surcharges, prevents the normal contracting of these insurances,” they added.

Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Extremadura considers that the policy of increasing rates and eliminating coverage that Agroseguro is applying “is not really effective in the medium and long term” and that these increases “they only discourage the hiring of the insured with less risk, increasing the accident rate on the lines and leading them to a true anti-selection”.

In this sense, he proposes solutions such as that the premium is within the economic possibilities of the insured to facilitate the dispersion of insurance and avoid the anti-selection that results, or that the insurance model is easy to understand and simple in its application.

“We all understand that Agroseguro has to be a solvent entity and sufficient reinsurance and stabilization systems. But it is necessary that the modifications be cautious and not throw insured people out of the system, since most sectors can only be protected by taking out agricultural insurance, stabilizing their income in the event of accidents,” stated the insurance technician. of Agro-food Cooperatives Extremadura, Jesús González.

Given all this, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Extremadura advocates that all members of the Agrarian Insurance System – ENESA, autonomous communities, Agroseguro, Consortium and sector – work to resolve this “complicated situation” that is leading to “many historical insureds who insured faithfully to think if it is worth insuring at these prices”.