July 2, 2014 — Subsidized premiums and nationwide pilots are part of a big push to increase coverage of aquaculture by China’s government, worried about protecting an ever-expanding freshwater aquaculture sector.
One of the regions keenest to get covered is the easterly province of Jiangsu, home of a giant freshwater crab aquaculture sector, which has been forcing insurers and producers to work together.
“There is enthusiasm among fish farmers to get insured,” explained Chen Yao, secretary general of the Jiangsu Fishery Mutual Insurance Association, a government-supported body seeking to expand insurance among local producers. Based in Nantong city, Chen’s organization has since 2012 arranged cover for 42 cooperatives and 28,000 mu (15 mu equals a hectare) of mostly freshwater crab raising farms. “We are a non-profit body and must cross the river by feeling the stones,” said Chen. who believes he can get coverage up to 50,000 mu by year’s end.
The 2013 typhoon and high temperatures hurt producers locally but some believe compensation under the pilot remains modest: Changshu Jintangshi Aquatic Foods Co., one of the companies covered, operates 1,080 mu of ponds, of which 500 mu is covered at maximum CNY 2,000/mu (USD 322, EUR 236) in payable compensation. This figure is “negligible,” said company chairman Zhang Jianlong, referring to a clause that limits compensation to 2 percent if temperatures rise to 37 degrees Celsius. “The damage done at that temperature would be far greater than the insurance we’d get,” he explained.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com