Agricultural insurance completes upgrade, premiums in first 10 months already exceed last year's total
On November 13, the person in charge of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission disclosed at a press conference on the operation of agricultural insurance that the upgrade and transformation of central-finance premium-subsidized agricultural insurance products nationwide has now been completed. From January to October this year, agricultural insurance premium income reached 33.633 billion yuan, exceeding last year's level for the whole year.
It is reported that at the beginning of this year, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the Notice on Further Improving the Drafting of Clauses for Central-Finance Premium-Subsidized Agricultural Insurance Products, deploying the upgrade and transformation of central-finance premium-subsidized agricultural insurance products nationwide.
The relevant person in charge of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission introduced at the press conference that, as of now, this work has been completed, and agricultural insurance products have achieved a comprehensive upgrade, involving a total of 34 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), 15 categories of crops and 6 categories of breeding varieties, altogether 738 agricultural insurance products and 22 insurance companies. This is mainly reflected in increasing the protection strength of agricultural insurance products, expanding insurance liability, raising compensation standards, lowering claim conditions, and reducing insurance premium rates, among other things.
As for whether doing so will increase the compensation ratio of insurance companies and whether insurance companies can bear it, the relevant person in charge of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said that with expanded agricultural insurance liability, the operating costs of insurance companies will certainly rise, but after several years of operating agricultural insurance, insurance companies have become relatively stable in agricultural insurance operations and should also have the ability to provide greater protection. The compensation ratio of each type of insurance differs somewhat, but on the whole, the operating condition of agricultural insurance is still quite good, so the industry is still able to bear the expansion of product liability.
Data show that since the central finance implemented the agricultural insurance premium subsidy policy in 2007, China's agricultural insurance has developed rapidly, and its ability to serve “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” has significantly strengthened. In 2014, agricultural insurance achieved premium income of 32.57 billion yuan, up 6.2% year on year; provided risk protection of 1.66 trillion yuan, up 19.6% year on year; insured farming households totaled 247 million household-times, up 15.71% year on year; major crops underwritten exceeded 1.1 billion mu, with an underwriting coverage rate close to 50%, and the underwriting coverage rate of major staple grain crops exceeded 65%.
The relevant person in charge of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission also pointed out that this upgrade of agricultural insurance products is mainly in terms of clauses. Next, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission will steadily improve the level of protection, and at the same time improve the product management system, formulate model clauses for major crop insurance, improve the agricultural insurance risk zoning and premium rate floating mechanism, and continue to give play to the positive role of agricultural insurance in supporting agriculture and benefiting farmers.