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Other countries interested in U.S. crop insurance model

A risk management advisor says other countries want to know more about how the U.S. crop insurance system works.

Thomas Zacharias is the President of National Crop Insurance Services.  He tells Brownfield crop insurance is handled differently in most other countries.  He says, “In general, they do not have the sort of federal system that we do.  It tends to be more localized.  They’re attempting to involve their departments of agriculture and their governments into it, but it doesn’t have near the capacity or infrastructure that we have in the U.S.”

Zacharias tells Brownfield representatives from Japan, Serbia, Austria, Germany came to the U.S. in the last year to learn how crop insurance is managed here.  “We’ll probably have three to four delegations a year come in from various countries that are interested in putting together a model like we have in the U.S. and (they ask) what are the specifications? How is this done?  How do you train people? What are the requirements to have an effective crop insurance system?”

He says many foreign visitors are surprised by the amount of data and infrastructure required to manage risk and rapidly pay claims.

Zacharias tells Brownfield a recent international conference on crop insurance included risk management advisors from Russia, India, China, France, and other countries.  He says all had questions about U.S. crop insurance systems.