The volume of insurance of agricultural risks has decreased fivefold over the past three years, as noted at a meeting of experts from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and representatives of the insurance market, which was attended by the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine (LIOU). According to the UIO website, according to NBU statistics, in 2015-2021, the amount of insurance payments for the voluntary type of “agricultural insurance” averaged UAH 243-245 million, in 2022 – UAH 80.7 million, and in 2023 – UAH 53.1 million. This indicates the insignificance of agricultural risk insurance given the importance and share of the industry in the country’s domestic product.
“We believe that the change in demand for agricultural insurance correlates with the amount of state support for agricultural producers. First of all, we are talking about lending and the mechanism of partial compensation of the interest rate on bank loans, when farmers gained access to credit through agricultural risk insurance,” said Viktor Berlin, President of the League of Ukrainian Agrarians.
He also emphasized that small farmers need the most support in wartime, and the introduction of mechanisms to stimulate agricultural insurance is one of the elements of financial support for their business.
Currently, the League is analyzing the issues of agricultural insurance in order to identify barriers that prevent the expansion of the number of insurers participating in agricultural insurance programs with state support.
