Maple Syrup Insurance
The province of Quebec today is going to help out with some insurance for maple producers. Today Country Guide reported that the “personalized insurance program will cover producers up to a certain volume when their yields are affected by poor climate conditions.” read the full story here.
You can download the English content of the Individual crop insurance information form. The insurance is basically propped up by the province of Quebec. The government pays 60% of the premium and the participant pays 40%. There is a minimum of insureable quota of 2000 pounds and it covers excessive heat, excessive rain and front. The deadline to apply is February 15, 2009 not too much time if you ask me.
Here is the example of how it works found on the back of their Individual Crop Insurance brochure
- Producer’s Quota is = 10,000lb
- The historical adjustment factor = 0.93 ( I don’t really know )
- Which makes the quota = 10,000 lbs x 0.93 = 9,300 lb
- There are three options, this is for 80% = 9,300lb x .80 = 7,440lb
- The insured value = 7,440 x $1.85/lb = $13,764
- payment by government – 2.59% = $356.49 (60%)
- payment by participant - 1.72% = $236.74 (40%)
so by this same model if you only make 6000 lbs your loss is 7440 – 6000 = 1,440 lb. This would entitle the participant to 1,440 x $1.85/lb = $2,664.
I used the same numbers because I don’t know if there are clauses with other numbers and there are no legal documents about the program.
Seems like a pretty good deal if you find out about it in the next 11 days.
The article goes on to say that Quebec is responsible for “71 per cent of world maple syrup production in 2004″ and that of it’s producers “12 per cent have 10,000 or more [taps] and just one per cent have over 30,000 [taps]”
If I had that much invested in maple syrup production I would most likely get insurance too.
Nothing for Ontario producers as of yet and I don’t imagine there would be.
