Growing cycle · climate installation · animal disease
Business interruption insurance for agricultural businesses through Avéro Achmea
On a farm, recovery takes longer than the time needed to build a shed. The herd or the crop then still has to be built back up, and that determines how long the cover must run.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Bedrijfsschadeverzekering voor agrarische bedrijven via Avéro Achmea.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Finass acts as an intermediary for the agricultural and business range of Avéro Achmea and sets it alongside that of other companies; which insurer fits follows from your type of business. Business interruption insurance pays for the trading result you lose after your business comes to a standstill through a covered cause. On a farm that means a fire in a livestock shed, an implement store or a barn, storm damage to a glasshouse or polytunnel, a lightning strike in the electrical installation or water damage in a store. See also business interruption insurance for farms.
The distinguishing point in this sector is the repair time. A burnt-out shed is rebuilt within a year, but building a dairy herd or a sow herd back up to its former level of production takes considerably longer. In storage and growing, the loss runs across whole harvest years: if a store is unusable in the autumn, you miss not only the storage but also the moment of sale. An indemnity period of fifty-six weeks is too short for that in most cases.
The second point is the climate and cooling installation. Failure of ventilation, heating or cooling leads within hours to deaths or spoilage. Whether that is covered depends on the cause: fire or a lightning strike in your own installation is usually included, but a mechanical failure, a fault in the alarm or a failure of the public electricity network usually is not. There are separate extensions for those. For the buildings themselves the farm buildings insurance is the basic policy. The wider range is set out under agricultural insurance.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare business interruption insurance.
What to look out for
Four subjects on which an agricultural business interruption policy differs from an ordinary business policy.
Animal disease and government measures fall outside
A cull after avian influenza, a transport ban, a breeding ban or the closure of an area is not material damage to your property but a a government measure, and that is excluded on an ordinary business interruption policy. There are separate animal disease covers and payments from the animal health fund for that risk. Do not assume that your fire policy carries it.
Weather damage to outdoor crops is a product of its own
Hail, frost, drought, flooding and sun scorch on crops in the open are covered by a broad weather insurance, not by business interruption insurance. The business interruption policy pays for the consequences of damage to buildings, installations and contents. A failed harvest without damage to property therefore does not lead to payment, however hard the year has been.
Inspection of electrics and storage prone to heating
Agricultural policies often carry specific prevention clauses: a periodic thermographic or NEN inspection of the electrical installation, requirements for charging batteries and forklifts, and rules for storing hay, straw and silage in view of self-heating. If it is established after a fire that an inspection was missing, the payment can be reduced.
Report changes in how you run the business
A side activity, diversification into care or recreation, a solar roof on the shed, a biogas plant or a new storage barn materially changes the risk. If you do not report it, the insurer can rely when a loss occurs on the duty of disclosure in Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code and on its consequences in Article 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code. Report in writing and keep the confirmation.
What does your premium depend on?
- Sector: dairy, pigs, poultry, glasshouse horticulture or arable
- Insured trading result: the continuing costs plus the result lost
- Indemnity period: matched to rebuilding and to restocking or the growing cycle
- Construction type and compartmentation: the distance between sheds and barns counts
- Prevention: electrical inspection, lightning protection, fire detection and standby power
- Installation failure included: cooling, ventilation and heating assessed separately
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A standstill in the dairy business after the cubicle shed has burnt down | Yes | Yes |
| Loss of production after a storm tears open the polytunnel | Yes | Yes |
| Spoilage in the store because of a mechanical failure in the cooling installation | No | Provided that |
| Two days of public power failure in the middle of the hatching season | No | Provided that |
| A standstill because your regular feed supplier has burnt down | No | No |
| Loss of turnover because your largest buyer becomes insolvent | No | No |
The policy follows material damage to your own property. A loss without such damage does not lead to payment.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
My ventilation failed and animals died. Is that covered?
That depends on the cause of the failure. If lightning struck or fire broke out in the installation, there is material damage and the business interruption follows from it. If the installation broke down through a defect or the public network failed, that material damage is missing and there is only cover if an extension for installation failure is included. A standby power supply with a record of test runs is often a policy condition here.
How long should the indemnity period be?
Work all the way back to the former level of production: clearing up, permits, rebuilding, fitting out and then restocking or completing a full growing cycle. In intensive livestock farming and with multi-year crops that often means more than two years. You choose the period in advance and it cannot be extended afterwards, so work with a generous margin rather than with the building time alone.
Are my tractors and implements included here?
No. Business interruption insurance covers the result lost, not the property itself. There is a separate policy for agricultural vehicles and implements, and for motor vehicles on the public road the compulsory insurance requirement of Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM) also applies. It does apply, though, that if a covered implement is lost in a fire and the harvest comes to a halt as a result, business interruption loss can follow from that.
What happens with a partial standstill?
Then the loss is assessed proportionately. If you can carry on with part of your capacity or store elsewhere temporarily, the insurer expects you to do so. The costs you incur for that are usually paid in so far as they limit the loss. Report the loss at once, as Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires, and keep separate records for the period of the standstill.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsschadeverzekering
- Bedrijfsschadeverzekeringthe main page
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- Avero achmea zakelijk bedrijfsschadeverzekering
- Bedrijfsschadeverzekering agrarisch
- Nationale nederlanden zakelijk bedrijfsschadeverzekering
- Chubb zakelijk bedrijfsschadeverzekering middelgrote tot grote bedrijven
- Business interruption insurance through a.s.r.
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