An agricultural business insures three things that appear on no standard policy: a crop still in the ground, animals that can move about, and an installation that must not fail for a single night.
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In brief
In farming the annual turnover hangs on something the policy does not recognise as property. A growing crop is not business contents, not trading stock and not part of the building; it falls into no section of an ordinary business policy. Anyone wanting to cover harvest loss needs separate crop or harvest cover for it, with a defined list of covered perils and its own loss assessment procedure for each field.
The second peculiarity is the animals. Article 6:179 of the Dutch Civil Code places strict liability on the keeper of an animal: if a cow goes through the fence and causes a collision, you are liable without anyone having to blame you. At the same time the animal is also a business asset, and that is where the fastest loss in the sector lies: failure of ventilation, feed or drinking water in an enclosed shed is irreversible within hours. A animal insurance and breakdown or business interruption cover therefore belong together.
The third axis is mechanisation. Tractors, tippers, foragers and self-propelled machines require registration or fall under the WAM (Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act), and it is precisely those machines that cause damage to third parties on the public road and on someone else's land. Contract work for others is also an activity in its own right that you have to declare separately; if you work on colleagues' account, that changes your acceptance.
What does insurance for the agricultural sector cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The basics
Liability
AVB for property damage and injury, BAV for professional errors.
Damage to third parties
Employers' liability
Care, custody and control as an extension
Your business
Assets and continuity
Business contents, goods and lost turnover during downtime.
Business contents at replacement value as new
Goods at cost price
Business interruption or additional costs
If you employ people
Staff
Sickness absence, accidents and the traffic risk.
Continued pay for 104 weeks
Group personal accident
WEGAS for traffic risks
What is covered
Situation
AVB
BAV
Cyber
Injury to a visitor or customer
Yes
No
No
Damage to a client's property
Sometimes
No
No
Financial loss caused by an advisory or calculation error
No
Yes
No
Downtime after a ransomware attack
No
No
Yes
Data breach involving personal data
No
Sometimes
Yes
Damage to property in your care
No
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
A growing crop falls outside both buildings and business contents
Hail, storm, extreme rainfall or night frost damage something that no section of your business policy covers. Harvest or crop cover works with a named perils list and a loss threshold per field; anything not on it — drought, slow growth, a disappointing price — remains for your account. Have it recorded which cropping plan is insured and report changes before sowing, not afterwards when you claim.
Loss of power or ventilation is the fastest loss in the sector
In an enclosed shed or a closed greenhouse the climate installation determines how long you have. Insurers therefore make an alarm that calls a person outside working hours and a standby power supply an acceptance condition, not a piece of advice. Test the generator periodically under load and keep the reports: a standby power installation that does not start during the actual failure is treated as though it had never been there, and cover for the consequential loss is then lost.
Animal disease and government measures are not an insured loss
Culling ordered by the authorities, a movement ban, a period of empty sheds after an outbreak and the fall in value that follows fall outside the usual covers; animal health funds and compensation schemes exist for those. welfare fines and penalty payments cannot be insured either. What a policy can absorb is losses through an identifiable technical fault or through a covered peril such as fire or a lightning strike.
Manure, diesel and crop protection hit the soil, not your AVB
A leaking above-ground diesel tank, an overflowing slurry store or run-off of spray liquid causes pollution of soil and surface water. Those clean-up costs are excluded on liability insurance, even where you are plainly liable under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. There is separate environmental damage cover for that; we explain it at environmental and agricultural.
What does your premium depend on?
Sector and cropping plan — Arable farming, dairy, intensive livestock, glasshouse horticulture and fruit growing each have their own damage pattern; the cropping plan chosen determines which perils are relevant.
Number of animals and type of housing — Stocking density per shed, how enclosed the shed is and how far it depends on mechanical ventilation determine how quickly a breakdown leads to losses.
Standby power, alarms and climate protection — A tested standby power supply that calls a person outside working hours is often an acceptance condition and works through into the premium.
Storage of manure, diesel and crop protection products — The volume, age and bunding of the storage determine the soil risk and with it the premium for the environmental section.
Machinery and self-propelled equipment — Number, age and use on the public road all count; machines requiring registration need their own WAM cover.
Contracting work and work for third parties — As soon as you work with your own machines on other people's land, your liability profile changes and that activity has to be declared separately.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is why comparing pays off.
How we arrange it
You request a quoteWe take stock of your activities, turnover and wishes.
We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
Only with separate harvest or crop cover. The growing crop is not business contents and not part of the building, so an ordinary business policy does not touch it. The cover works with a named perils list and a loss threshold per field; drought, slow growth and falling prices are usually not on it. Report changes to your cropping plan before the season.
What if my livestock get through the fence and cause a collision?
As the keeper of the animal you are strictly liable under Article 6:179 of the Dutch Civil Code: the injured party does not have to show blame. The other party's injury and property damage fall under your liability insurance, provided the livestock business has been correctly declared. The animal itself and your own fencing do not; that is a matter for your own property insurance.
Does the insurance pay for animal losses during a power cut?
It can, but only with extended breakdown or business interruption cover and only if you met the acceptance conditions. The usual requirements are a climate alarm that calls out outside working hours and a periodically tested standby power supply. If the generator was not working at the time of the failure, the insurer treats that as the provision being absent.
Am I insured differently as a contractor than as a grower on my own land?
Yes. As soon as you work with your machines on third-party land, liability arises for damage to someone else's crops, drainage, cables and pipes. That activity has to appear separately on the policy. Damage to the machine you are operating also falls under plant and machinery cover, not under the liability section.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
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