Prairie hail insurers in 2009 paid out about three-quarters less than in 2008 to settle their farmer customers’ hail claims.
That’s the final count from the Canadian Crop Hail Association, which on Friday released its final report, adding up total crop hail claims for 2009 at just over $76 million, down from a record-high $341 million in 2008.
Nearly $264 million was collected from producers in premiums, the association said, for an industry-wide loss ratio of about 29 per cent. From the insurers’ perspective, that compares favourably to 2008, when payouts exceeded the premiums collected and the loss ratio was 118 per cent.
Read Also
Entomologist tests trap crops and marigolds to repel flea beetles at an Ag in Motion
An Agriculture Canada entomologist is experimenting with trap crops and marigolds at an Ag in Motion demonstration cropplot
“This year’s results will help to erase some of the losses suffered in 2008 and 2007,” the association said in its release.
Payouts to Saskatchewan farmers, for example, dropped from a record high of $228 million in 2008 to a “modern-times record low” of $23.4 million. Farmers in the province filed 4,075 claims in all, down from about 21,000 last year. The 2009 loss ratio sits at “an incredibly low” 13.6 per cent, down from 129 per cent in 2008.
“Limited work”
“Crop hail adjusters received limited work in Saskatchewan this year,” the association observed.
Alberta, meanwhile, was also on track for historically low levels payouts and claims up until the province’s Heritage Day long weekend in August. That’s when a severe storm, in some spots up to 55 km wide, stretched from west of Olds to Bow Island.
“This storm was responsible for the majority of 2009 payouts,” the association said. That said, claims and payouts in Alberta turned out to be less than half of the levels experienced in 2008.
In all, Alberta farmers in 2009 paid $49 million in premiums and filed 2,032 claims for payouts totaling $40.6 million, for hail insurance claims over and above crop insurance endorsements. That leaves insurers with a loss ratio of about 83 per cent, compared to 147 per cent in 2008.
Manitoba farmers filed 2,650 claims in 2009, just below the typical number for the province in recent years, although payouts at $12.2 million were “well below average” with damage per claim “relatively light,” the association said.
Manitoba farmers paid premiums of $42.6 million, for a loss ratio of less than 29 per cent, down from 35 per cent in 2008.
