It has been more than three months since severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie left a trail of destruction across Queensland. The well reported impact on the state’s horticulture sector once again highlighted the absence of a viable crop insurance product for affected farmers.
Due to the narrow range of agricultural commodities covered by existing insurance products, Growcom continues to advocate for the development of a suitable insurance products that provide additional risk management options for our members.
Quality historical farm data, regional data and farm weather risks are critical to the development of any farm insurance product. This has proved a barrier for our sector as the lack of data and a high degree of variability have made it difficult to attract the attention of insurance companies.
The Queensland government has funded Growcom and Queensland Farmers’ Federation to deliver a project that investigates new risk management solutions for farm businesses and collects this base level data. This project will take in to consideration the needs of growers to ensure, that any product is useful in a practical context.
The Insurance Council of Australia and insurance companies will support this project and with their support we aim to prove that with industry involvement, quality data and willing farmers the initial stages of insurance product development can achieved.
The project will initially work with the pineapple and stonefruit industries to develop the methodology and determine if there is an insurance solution for our sector.
There is significant interest in this topic as evidenced by the upcoming presentation to the Rural Press Club by multinational risk and insurance adviser Willis Towers Watson managing director for agribusiness and weather, Julian Roberts
We will be keen to hear him discuss global agricultural success stories and the challenges that introducing agricultural insurance faces in Australia and specifically Queensland.
