Kiwi fruit growers caught short by hailstorm

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29 June 2009

NZ kiwifruit growers whose crops were wiped out in hailstorms just before harvest last month are looking to their peers for support because hardly any of them have insurance.

They normally rely on a hail compensation fund, which provides $NZ2 million ($1.6 million) for green kiwifruit and $NZ2 million for gold, but the losses from last month’s downpour far surpass that amount.

Last week growers agreed to support an opt-in component to the hail fund that will provide additional funds to those that were affected to make up for the lost profits.

NZ Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated President Peter Ombler told insuranceNEWS.com.au only about 40 of the country’s 3500 growers have insurance.

“It’s relatively expensive when you consider the risk involved,” he said. “We’ve always had heaps of money in the hail fund but this year because of the number of trays affected it has far surpassed that. Both the timing and the extent of the event were very unusual.”

Nikki Berney, the NZ manager of specialist insurance broker Agririsk, told insuranceNEWS.com.au kiwifruit insurance product has been on the market for three seasons but no one has taken it up.

“It’s because they have the fund which they can get recovery from,” she said. “But it’s obvious from the last lot of hailstorms that the fund isn’t big enough.”

Mr Ombler says the industry is now contemplating a scheme where the first couple of million dollars are covered within the industry, with additional insurance on top of that.