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NAAI and ASNACODI held a joint seminar on agriculture insurance in Italy

On 13-14 June, 2019, the NAAI and the Italian National Association ASNACODI held a joint international seminar in Rome, “The State and Prospects for Developing an Agricultural Insurance System with State Support in Italy” in order to exchange experiences. The event was attended by the Management Board of NAAI, representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia and insurance companies.
“In Italy, total premiums for crop insurance with state support is approximately 34 times larger than the volume of the Russian market,” noted Korney Bizhdov, the President of NAAI, “The experience of agricultural insurance in Italy is interesting for Russian insurers, with Italian associations of agrarians being actively involved in the formation of insurance programs; the largest of these associations being ASNACODI, which involves 98% of insured farmers against adverse climatic events. One of the main topics on the agenda for Italian agrarians and agricultural insurance in general is the possibility of introducing a system with obligatory coverage of catastrophic risks by means of a specially-created disaster protection fund. The Italian experience of insuring orchards and vineyards is of particular interest to NAAI, since a number of regions in the South of Russia have shown the need to develop this area of insurance, which is still at a starting level in Russia”.

According to the data published by the Institute for Agricultural Food Market Service (ISMEA) on 07 June, 2019, crop insurance with state support in Italy received a fresh impetus in 2018. The number of insured farms in the country increased from 58.9 thousand in 2017 to 61.7 thousand, while the amount of premiums paid under insurance contracts increased from 347.9 million euros to 453.2 million euros.
During the seminar, representatives from ASNACODI familiarized their Russian colleagues with the experience of developing agricultural risk insurance in Italy. The Executive Director of ASNACODI, Paola Grossi, talked about risk management as part of the single agricultural policy of the European Union using an example of Italian agrarian funds. Italian representatives also shared features of subsidizing agricultural insurance and claims settlement.
In turn, the Executive Director of NAAI, Mukharbiy Boranukov, presented the vision of NAAI, concerning problems of and prospects for the development of Russian agricultural insurance, stressing the importance of using international experiences in further development of the insurance protection system for Russian agrarians. NAAI also informed the participants of the international seminar on measures taken by the Association in close coordination with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation on the modernization of agricultural insurance with state support in Russia, on legislation innovations and the introduction of affordable insurance programs for agrarians.
Italian colleagues organized a trip to a large agrarian farm in the Umbria region, where the NAAI delegation was informed on the peculiarities of cultivating olive orchards and grapes, as well as on the specifics of risks and their insurance for these farms.

 The Presidents of NAAI and ASNACODI, Korney Bizhdov and Albano Agabiti, were engaged in discussions, during which an agreement was reached to continue cooperation, following the International round-table “Agricultural Insurance as a Risk Management Tool for the Farming Industry. Prospects for Development” in the framework of the XVII International Conference "Insurance – the incentive for sustainable growth" that will be held on 03 July, 2019, in St. Petersburg. The Board of NAAI and ASNACODI management also held a separate meeting with heads of the largest Italian insurance companies – leaders in Italian agricultural insurance market – where they exchanged views on agricultural insurance differences of each country.

 “NAAI is grateful to ASNACODI for the productive and informative exchange of experiences,” said the President of NAAI Korney Bizhdov. “Today, the world has developed diverse practices of insuring agricultural risks and we have to take the best from them, taking into account conditions in the Russian agricultural industry. In the framework of national projects, the Russian agricultural sector set an objective of export development. Therefore, it is of fundamental importance that Russian agrarians have insurance protection at the same high level as in the other countries – suppliers of food to the world market.”

ASNACODI unites about 60 agricultural farmer associations stipulating collective insurance contracts on behalf of their associated farmers against climatic and other risks. Its constantly-updated database on insurance of agricultural production is the largest in Italy. ASNACODI participates in the formation and the development of a risk management system for Italian agrarians. In June 2018, the cooperation agreement was signed between NAAI and ASNACODI on the exchange of experiences and innovations on agrarian risk management for the betterment of agricultural insurance.