Descartes’ Parametric Insurance Offers Full Protection Against Frost

Across Australia's fruit growing regions, spring frost can have devastating agricultural impacts.

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Our parametric frost insurance offers a client-tailored approach to cover frost-related crop losses

Utilizing data from IoT-driven weather stations & long-term climate trends, we analyze the risk of temperature fluctuations & long cold spells during critical points of the growing season

In full collaboration with broker & client, we structure a customized insurance cover based on predefined payouts and client-specific expected
losses

We monitor how these parameters evolve with the help of on-site weather stations, transparently tracking the minimum temperatures during
the risk period

If predefined thresholds are triggered during the coverage timeframe, clients are swiftly compensated based on the temperature data throughout their specified risk period

fruits impacted by frost

Key benefits

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Financial certainty & price reliability:

Payout structure and policy period(s) are calibrated precisely to the insured crops, and swift payouts empower financial recovery & resilience.

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Added transparency:

Weather stations’ IoT capabilities enable transmission & storage of data for constant client access.

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Fresh capacity & tailor-made coverage:

Substantial capacity for agribusinesses & bespoke coverage design fits the client’s financial and agronomics requirements - No on-site loss adjustment required.

case study example

Frost risk for agriculture

An olive orchard sought coverage against frost during the critical blooming season from September to November. In previous years the occurrence of frost prior on newly planted olive groves resulted in full losses for several fields, with significant effects on production volume, business relations and revenues.

Problem

The client’s traditional cover is unable to meet their precise needs in terms of peril and risk period, and does not reflect the uneven exposure of each field location or their geographic attributes. 

Without proper coverage in their traditional policy, the client was forced to absorb previous losses due to frost, including the loss of 3 major business contracts a revenue loss of $14M in annual revenue.

Solution

A parametric cover set to the client selected risk period and structured to payout if temperatures drop below predefined thresholds. Before the cover starts, we use existing stations in the field vicinity or install weather stations at agreed locations on-site and set up the payout grid. In this case, if the temperature reaches -4 they receive 100% of the limit. We monitor minimum temperatures on a daily basis to detect a frost event. The client also shares access to the data and uses it as a prevention tool.

payout structure

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