Hail Damaged Apples
The governments of Canada and British Columbia announced changes to the AgriInsurance-Production Insurance program that will help B.C. tree-fruit growers manage the risk of crop losses by hail, spring frost, excessive rain, flooding, drought and wind.
“Production Insurance is an important program to orchardists and we are very pleased with the changes for 2017. The level of consultation we have had from Ministry of Agriculture staff is greatly appreciated. I am impressed with how fast the gap in coverage around wind damage has been closed. The change to depreciation better reflects the actual loss that occurs, making the program more predictable and easy to understand. It is a great improvement.”said Fred Steele, president of the BCFGA.
In 2017, the calculation of depreciation is changing for quality loss claims. This will help improve the predictability of claims, better reflect the true value of losses and will more accurately align with the picking and abandonment decisions growers make when crops are severely damaged. There is no cost increase to the new
calculation and the change applies to all tree-fruit crops, except cherries.
Wind will be added as a “quality peril” to the B.C. Production Insurance program. Fruit damaged by wind and remaining on the tree will be adjusted the same as hail damage. There also will be changes for cherry growers, including additional coverage for new cherry plantings and the time between purchasing quality coverage and coverage coming into effect is being extended from two days to four days.
Tree-fruit producers will receive their production insurance renewal packages in the mail in October 2016. The deadline for new applications and renewals is Nov. 30, 2016. Tree-fruit crops eligible for purchase of production insurance coverage include apples, cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, pears, plums and prunes.
AgriInsurance is a federal-provincial-producer cost-shared program that stabilizes a producer's income by minimizing the economic effects of production losses caused by natural hazards.