Greenhouse insurance

Greenhouse insurance combines, in a single policy, three things that do not price the same way: the glass and steel structure, the technical systems and the live crop. The benchmark case is Dutch. On June 23, 2016, a supercell crossed North Brabant and Limburg. Hail destroyed around 150 to 160 hectares of greenhouses in Asten and Someren and damaged about fifty more. Dutch insurers reported more than 200 million euros of greenhouse damage for 2016. The government declined to classify the event as a national disaster on the grounds that growers could have insured, and the uninsured kept their losses. On the structure, the underwriter looks at the glass type (tempered or float), thickness, age, span width and snow load rating. The technical systems often fall under a machinery breakdown section: boiler, combined heat and power unit, thermal screens, LED lighting, climate computer. The crop is covered at its value at the stage reached, and the policy usually adds business interruption. The most specific peril is breakdown. A boiler that stops on a January night freezes a tomato house; ventilation stuck in July cooks it. Insurers require alarms, backup generators and maintenance contracts, and cut the indemnity when they are missing. Greenhouses in a single growing area are packed into a few towns: one hailstorm takes them all at once.