The Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands has announced subsidies for the subscription of combined agricultural insurance for the year 2025 for a total amount of 4.5 million euros, an amount that represents an increase of 500,000 euros compared to the previous year, thus allowing reaching the maximum subsidizable limit allowed by the European Union.
The objective of this measure is to promote the hiring of policies that protect professionals in the agricultural and livestock sector from possible damages caused by variations in natural agents that affect agricultural income.
The General Director of Agriculture, Juan Ramón Rodríguez Marín, has indicated that through the contracting of agricultural insurance, the viability and continuity of agricultural holdings is guaranteed, as it safeguards producers against possible claims caused by natural factors that can reduce profits and generate significant economic losses.
“In this sense, the Canary Islands stands out as one of the Autonomous Communities that grants the highest percentage of aid in the entire State to this concept, so that the payment is reduced as much as possible, up to the maximum amount authorized by the EU, that our professionals must face for this purpose”, he added.
These aids are exclusively intended to support the subscription of insurance policies contracted by insured farmers and ranchers who are registered in the CIAS Database (Comprehensive Access Control to Subsidies) for natural and legal persons at the time the policy comes into force, prepared for this purpose by ENESA (State Agricultural Insurance Entity).
In this regard, the head of the department recalled that “interested farmers and ranchers do not need to apply for this subsidy, as it is automatically applied when they subscribe to the policy”.
Insured farms have additional advantages
The amount of the subsidies will be distributed according to the types of insurance, which include from the removal and destruction of dead animals on the farm to insurance for marine aquaculture, including insurance with specific coverage for banana, tomato, avocado farms (being more advantageous for those producers associated in a Producer Organization), as well as for tropical and subtropical crops such as custard apple, prickly pear, lychee, mango, papaya, date palm and tropical pineapple, among others.
In the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, the agricultural insurance rate in some subsectors is still relatively low. For this reason, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty promotes the contracting of combined agricultural insurance as a tool for Canarian farmers and ranchers to reduce, as much as possible, their dependence on the damages caused by the frequent variations of natural agents.
In this context, subsidies for the subscription of agricultural insurance policies are considered aid aimed at maintaining agricultural income.
It should be noted that farms that have agricultural insurance enjoy a series of additional advantages, such as a better assessment in calls for aid for modernization, as well as a greater intensity in aid to support production within the framework of the Program of Specific Options for Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI).
The full text of the call can be found in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC).