Manitoba Pork Council Investigates Insurance Reciprocals
CANADA - Farm-Scape: Episode 1526. Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.
31 May 2004
3 minute read
  Farm-Scape is sponsored by
Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork  Play AudioFarm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork. |
Farm-Scape, Episode 1526
In an effort to help rein in the rising cost of insuring livestock premises, pork producers in Manitoba are considering the establishment an insurance reciprocal.
Delegates attending Manitoba Pork Council's annual general meeting last month passed a resolution calling on the board to investigate the feasibility of establishing an independently run reciprocal barn insurance program to help producers better cope with escalating insurance premiums.
Chartered Accountant Jim Peters describes an insurance reciprocal as an agreement in which participants in a like business share the risk of possible loss.
"It's insurance, pure and simple.
Just like you buy insurance for anything, you're insuring for potential loss.
It can provide what ever the members of the group choose for it to provide.
They can narrow it down as much as they want.
They could decide, for example, to insure only the barn for fire.
That would be the extreme case of narrowing it down to one instance.
They can also broaden that to include the barn with the equipment in case of any type of damage or loss.
They can also extend that to the pigs themselves.
Not only can you determine what it is you're insuring based on what the group decides, you can also extend it to what type of loss you're insuring against.
It's pretty broad.
To some extent you can almost do anything you want within the plan as long as that's what the membership chooses they want to do"
Peters says an insurance reciprocal offers several advantages including a greater level of participant control, the ability of limit risk to specific types of activities, reduced administration costs and the fact that an insurance reciprocal is locally based.
He says the goal is to have a program ready for presentation to swine producers by late summer or early fall.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
