Central Bank of Armenia’s pilot program of agricultural insurance commenced in 2019. Prior to that, nothing alike ever existed in Armenia, as the premiums required were too high for the farmers, possible ample claims were not admissible for the insurers, reinsurers expressed little to no interest and vagueness of state participation pushed it even further.
By 2019’s initiative, it became possible to insure apricot, grape, peach, apple tree orchards and gardens as well as some crops like wheat, barley, and oat. The included risks are fire, hail and spring frostbite. The insurance tariff depends on the crop, the region, the area of a field and sometimes even irrigation type; the government subsidizes 50 or 60% of total amount. In the next two-year or so, more crops are planned to be included in the program like potato, berries, etc.
Only 3 out of 6 insurance firms were included in this project: Rosgosstrakh, Sil Insurance and Ingo Armenia. Both by gross premiums and by average premium per contract, the leader in the market is Rosgosstrakh. More comprehensive information on agricultural insurance pilot program, is available in the Armenian version of this article.
