OREANDA-NEWS. March 29, 2011. IC ROSNO is summing up loss settlement results in agricultural insurance. Last year’s weather complications resulted in significant losses of agricultural producers. The aggregate amount of agricultural insurance compensations paid by IC ROSNO in 2010 equalled 318.7 mln. roubles. The sizeable part of these compensations pertained to crop insurance (314 mln. roubles), the major portion of which was paid to the enterprises located in Povolzh’e (The Saratov, Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod Regions), reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

Over 89% of loss proofs submitted by insurants were already settled by ROSNO before the end of 2010. Throughout the year, the experts of ROSNO’s Agricultural and Natural Risks Insurance Department were carrying out an ongoing monitoring of the insured farms.

ROSNO’s gross insurance premium collected in agricultural insurance amounted to 329.5 mln. roubles, where 90% pertained to crop insurance, and the remaining share related to animal insurance.

The winterkilling processes observed in the winter of 2009-2010 in a number of Russian regions (the Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod and Kirov Regions) resulted in a loss of overwintering plants. IC ROSNO compensated agricultural producers over 28 mln. roubles of damage due to winter risks, including 16 mln. roubles of insurance compensations in the Saratov Region.

The abnormal heat and drought observed in the summer of 2010 led to crop shortage for 76 ROSNO insurants. The company paid them over 234 mln. roubles, an average of 3.1 mln. roubles per client. The largest payments were made to agricultural producers based in the Volgograd, Saratov, Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod Regions and the Republic of Buryatia. The drought also affected insurants in the Orenburg, Voronezh, Tambov, Kurgan, Samara and Rostov Regions, the Republic of Mordovia, and the Republic of Mari El. In addition, 52 mln. roubles were paid under the crop loss accidents occurring to other risks.

The aggregate amount of animal insurance compensations paid by ROSNO in 2010 exceeded 4.7 mln. roubles. The largest of those (over 2.8 mln. roubles) were paid to the farms located in the Rostov Region, Republic of Tatarstan (over 900 thousand roubles), the Nizhny Novgorod Region (over 600 thousand roubles) for cattle (cows, hens and pigs) and horses. In 2010, the especially large number of unusual insured accidents happened to cows: apart from murrain due to sickness, one cow got bogged down in a beaver hole in an Udmurtian marsh, five cows got poisoned at a pasture in Chuvashia, and another two, in Nizhny Novgorod, had a thermal shock.

"Our performance results clearly prove the relevance of this insurance type, especially given the fact that Mother Nature has never been short of surprises. However, the development of agricultural insurance in Russia is hampered by a number of factors — mainly that agricultural producers are short of funds to pay for insurance before sowing, and that the potential of sophisticated agricultural technologies is underused", notes Mr. Leonid Golovanov, head of ROSNO’s Agricultural and Natural Risks Insurance Department.