The 2024 AgroInsurance International Conference took place on June 3-5th, 2024 in Belgrade, Serbia. The conference was attended by 75 participants and speakers from 22 countries representing 47 companies and international organizations.

In 2024, the conference agenda was focused on the following key topics:

• Regional market overview in Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and Africa;
• Insurability of complex / systemic risks – adjusting to a “new normal” for spring frosts and droughts;
• Spring frost insurance – technical aspects of indemnity and index-based solutions;
• Application of earth-observation technologies for enhancing agricultural insurance and disaster risk management programs. 

The conference opened with the European markets’ overview, providing insights on the most recent developments with subsidy programs and the gradual change in attitude towards subsidizing the insurance premiums for systemic risks. The European markets review showed changes in approaches to enhance the Public-Private Partnership cooperation in Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
 
The Caucasian and Central Asian market overview summarised on the current development advances and challenges in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. A special accent was made on the market regulation and the challenges seen in these countries within the last few years.
 
The overview of agricultural insurance programs in Africa summarised the status of several programs. It has also provided a quality example of PPP approaches and cooperation with financial institutions in Rwanda, as one of the prominent examples on how it may help to involve a significant number of smallholder farmers in the country.
 
Another section of the agenda focused on the insurability of systemic and complex risks, such as spring frost and drought. The challenges seen in Europe within the last three years demand the reconsideration of the spring frost coverage and actual insurability of that risk. At the same time, the droughts continuously affect the crop yields and overall agricultural production in Europe and Asia. The first day of the conference concluded with a discussion about the technical aspects of development and the implementation of systemic risk insurance programs enhanced by the innovative earth observation solutions available on the market.
 
A special accent of the second day was made on discussing industry gaps and ways of introduction of available satellite and drone technologies by insurers in order to address key risks, which included the challenges of using artificial intelligence solutions that are able to enhance underwriting and loss adjustment of agricultural risk insurance. The second day was dedicated to the importance of adopting technology innovations available with commercial service providers. These technologies advance faster than implemented by insurers, creating the gap that needs to be addressed by both insurers and Earth Observation service providers.
 
The second day concluded with a panel discussion on the use of technological innovations in agricultural insurance and risk insurability in the future. Participants had an opportunity to comment on the existing challenges and possible solutions in closing the gaps of insurers and technology providers.
 
NOTE: Conference presentation deck is provided to all registered participants. Other interested companies and individuals can access the set of presentations and other materials for a fee. For inquiries, please refer to: admin@agroinsurance.com.

Conference Summary
Since 2013, the AgroInsurance International Conferences continuously serve as a platform for discussion and experience shared through the cross-sectoral communication and collaboration among industry experts from various global locations. The representatives of insurers, reinsurers, technology companies, development organisations and governmental agencies work in close cooperation to establish new business links and create development opportunities for global and regional markets. Participating organizations continuously foster a productive exchange of ideas and technical information. Conference organisers engaged participants in numerous meetings, negotiations, and business opportunity discussions, enabling both knowledge and experience sharing on the technical aspects of agricultural insurance and technology applications.
 
After the successful Conference in 2024, Agroinsurance International will continue in organising its events throughout 2025-2026 to foster the sharing of technical knowledge and practical expertise whilst promoting agricultural insurance development efforts on a global scale.  The updates on future conferences and workshops will be shared with all conference participants and the subscribers of www.agroinsurance.com.

Source - www.agroinsurance.com