December 17, 2019

African swine fever affects agriculture insurance industry

Loss ratio of swine insurance has increased to 130% from between 50% to 60% before the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak, reported Caixin Global.

This means insurance companies pay out 130 RMB (~US$18.57; 1 RMB = US$0.14) for every 100 RMB (~US$14.28) collected. These numbers were reported at a recent agricultural insurance forum.

Lin Changqing, People's Insurance Co of Chinadeputy general manager at the agriculture insurance department said smaller farms have incurred too much losses from ASF that they aren't inclined to restart their swine business, which in turn has reduced revenues for insurance companies.

The ASF outbreak in China has caused an estimated US$140 billion in direct losses for the local swine industry.

-      Caixin Global