萬國法律事務所

Currently, Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture under the Executive Yuan (“COA”) provides natural disaster relief measures to assist farmers in recouping losses caused by natural disasters in accordance with Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief Measures. According to news reports published by major newspapers, COA, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Non-Life Insurance Association of the R.O.C., and property insurance companies in Taiwan are now collaborating on an effort to push forward the first crop insurance policy in the Taiwan market.

In the past, due to a lack of information on production costs, technical data, and amounts of losses resultant from natural disasters, there have been no property insurance companies in Taiwan that possess sufficient rating experiences to launch crop insurance policies in Taiwan. Nevertheless, it is now expected that with the information necessary to formulate a crop policy and premiums to be provided by the COA, property insurance companies will be able to formulate and launch the first crop policy this year.

It is reported that one interested property insurance company has initiated the development of a crop insurance policy and the formulation of premiums for the same. In this initial stage, the subject matter insured may possibly include nine types of fruits (i.e., top-grafted pears, mangos, persimmons, kyoho grapes, papayas, tankans, buddhas, shaddocks and wax apples) and rice.

By rough estimation, the premiums for the crop insurance may be rather high. Thus, it is possible that in the future, COA may provide subsidies to farmers to procure the crop insurance.