We are pleased to launch the fourth edition of our News Feed newsletter, which provides news, opinions and advice on risk and insurance topics affecting food & agri companies. Our main feature looks at how technology is driving huge changes in the agricultural sector, revolutionising the way it grows food, manages farmland and looks after livestock. As pilot projects prove themselves, farmers throughout the world will start to adopt a variety of transformational techniques and technologies.
In This Edition
Technology is driving huge changes in the agricultural sector, revolutionising the way it grows food, manages farmland and looks after livestock. As pilot projects prove themselves, farmers throughout the world will start to adopt a variety of transformational techniques and technologies.
Analytics can deliver valuable information along the length of the supply chain, helping farmers, manufacturers, packagers, distributers and retailers to better understand their businesses and to identify small changes that could alleviate pinch-points, reduce risks, increase resilience and mitigate losses.
Food and agriculture companies face a diverse range of operational, financial, geographical and reputational risks – to name but a few. Insurance can provide financial recompense for losses in these areas, but it can also provide access to expertise to ensure the first actions taken in a crisis are the correct one. A security risks product does just that.
The law is not always the best arbiter of what is right and wrong as the tragic case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died after eating a Pret a Manger baguette, tragically demonstrated. Natasha died in 2016 and the recent inquest into her death generated widespread media attention. The inquest highlighted gaps in current labelling laws that proved fatal on this occasion.
Farmers have recently faced challenges from a wide range of disease perils: African Swine Fever (pork), Avian Influenza (poultry), Xylella fastidiosa (olives) to name just three. These diseases, and others, will persist for years to come, and weak spots in biosecurity make dealing with them more difficult for agricultural producers. Shoring up defences will give the sector much-needed resilience, but success depends on input from international governments all the way down to individual farmers.
Between 2005 and 2015 it found that natural disasters cost the agriculture sectors of developing countries USD 96 billion in damaged or lost crop and livestock production. Half of that damage occurred in Asia, leaving behind a bill of USD 48 billion. The hugely detrimental impact of NatCat events demands a better risk management response from individual producers, commercial companies, industry bodies and governments alike.
Food and agri companies must have a strategy in place that reflects developing changes and provides access to alternative market or risk going to the market cold, weakening their negotiating position and reducing their options. They cannot wait until existing covers become unavailable or too expensive before hatching a plan.
For further information contact Simon Lusher, Head of Food & Agri for JLT Specialty on +44 (0) 20 7459 5550 or email simon_lusher@jltgroup.com.
