Fruit

Important Information for Apple
Insurance Policy Holders 

As soon as you suspect that you may have reduced yields or damaged apples, please call us to submit a notice of loss.  This will allow the insurance adjusters adequate time to make arrangements with you on how to proceed before and during harvest.  This grade level increase is good for you, but it will require increased efforts on all of our parts to make sure things go smoothly during a loss adjustment.

Your apple policy (including the $300 CAT policy) now guarantees production of USDA Processing grade or better.  If weather causes damage to your apples that reduce them to below Processing grade, those apples in that category will not be counted as production against your guarantee.  This includes quality issues such as color, shape, size, and russeting.  Following is a loss example:

APH (5 year average yield)        =  500 bu/acre      
X CAT level of coverage            =  50%           
Guarantee                                  =  250 bu/acre
Harvest Yield                              =  300 bu/acre
LESS 25% damaged production
(less than USDA Proc grade)    =  75 bu/acre (not counted)            Production to Count                   =  225 bu/acre
Loss paid on policy                    =   25 bu/acre

If you have selected the Fresh Fruit Endorsement for your policy, the policy insures for USDA Fancy grade.  The same perils are covered but there is also an increasing payment factor depending upon the percent of damaged production.  

So what does this mean to you?  If you have damaged production and/or reduced yields we are recommending that you request a crop insurance adjuster conduct a pre-harvest inspection.  At that time a grade appraisal will determine the percent of apples that fail to make the grade requirements.  The grade inspection will make things easier for both you and the insurance company if there is a payable loss.  Your pack out records may not be sufficient evidence of quality losses.