The government plans to introduce compulsory insurance in agriculture, and a new law is being prepared. For years, only a small number of farmers insured their crops and livestock, thus in the event of disasters and damage, the Government compensated affected farmers from the budget. The new law has a new solution - to establish Agricultural Insurance Fund.

"In the past, damages that occurred in agriculture, caused by weather disasters, in a certain percentage were paid from the budget to the farmers who did not insure their production. The proposed system aims to replace existing ad-hoc disaster relief schemes with crop and livestock insurance solutions. The proposal to establish an Agricultural Insurance Fund is aimed at unifying the competencies and procedures for damages in agriculture from adverse climatic events on a legal basis, by drafting and enacting a Law on Compulsory Agricultural Insurance", said faktor.mk.

According to the data from the Insurance Supervision Agency, as of September 30, 2021, 3,652 agricultural insurance contracts were concluded, which is 2.5% less than last year. Farmers have invested MKD 491.5 million in insurance, or 2% more y-o-y. For this period the claimed compensation for damages reached MKD 249.2 million and of this amount individual farmers claimed MKD 140.8 million, while legal entities - MKD 81 million.

*EUR 1 = MKD 61.62 (as of Oct 1^st)