Spanish farmers and ranchers have been denouncing for years the power relations between the agricultural insurance employers, Agroseguro; the State Agricultural Insurance Entity (ENESA), which depends on the Department of agricultureand the main associations that workers in the country’s sector.
The agricultural and livestock sectors understand that the power and control that Agroseguro has today had never been seen before and breaks with the traditional model of collaboration between the different institutions. Before, they consider, there was a more or less balanced correlation of forces where the Ministry had the last word, they point out from the sectors. The associations, every time they have the opportunity, raise their complaints to the Government in meetings or with writings, understanding that this situation has completely changed.
OKDIARIO has had access to one of the reports of the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (ASAJA) about the sector in which it is stated that Agroseguro “imposes, many times unilaterally, its approaches” and brand the system as a “failure”. ASAJA understands that the insurance system has to be economically “sustainable”, but “we cannot in any way equate the agricultural insurance system with other insurance such as car, home or health.”
The association considers that Agroseguro forgets the raison d’être of agricultural insurance, the protection of the countryside against inclement weather that is beyond the control of farmers, and that “blatantly” prioritizes its goal of obtaining the “maximum profits” short term.
From the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG) point out that every time they launch proposals in the three-way meetings with Enesa, Agroseguro and the rest of the associations, the employers always respond that the only way to change the system is by increasing the price of the policies.
“It is that we do not even understand the explanation and the reason for its rejection. It is an abuse”, they comment from COAG. Farmers and ranchers believe that it is practically impossible to change the current system, but that there are options to perfect it with the participation of all those involved. The first step, in his opinion, is for ENESA to recover its control role and act as “defender and coordinator of the insurance system, being effective and efficient with all the actors” to achieve a “transparent, accessible and continuously improving” system.
The initial request from the sector is that Enesa raise subsidies to pre-crisis levels, as well as the average percentage of subsidies. The Ministry of Agriculture yes has been fulfilled on this plot, although the amount for 2008 has not been fully reached. The budget has been increased by 60 million euros, up to 317.7 million, 331 million in 2008, “a figure never before reached in the history of insurance”, according to Agriculture. Now, the total cost of the premium is increased from up to approximately 40%, compared to 32% today.
For its part, Agroseguro defends that any change that occurs in agricultural insurance “is always considered in working groups in which all the actors participate that are involved in the system. That is, the Ministry of Agriculture, through ENESA; co-insurance entities, through Agroseguro, and farmers and ranchers, represented by agricultural associations”. The employer affirms that every time they introduce changes in insurance, “these are known and agreed previously with all the previous groups”, they add.
Agroseguro clings to the data of its ‘Perceived Quality’ study “which is prepared every year by an external and independent company” in which it is reflected that 87% of farmers and ranchers confirm their intention to renew their agricultural insurance policy. In said report it appears that the global average grade given by the insured producers is 7.1 points out of 10 and that it has grown by 0.4 points in the last two years.