The unusual weather conditions have prolonged the days of anxiety of Latvian farmers, making them to turn for help to insurers. For the entire summer period, BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS (hereinafter – BTA) received 187 insurance claims and disbursed nearly 1.7 million euros in indemnities to crop losing farms.

The plight of field farmers started at the end of July already, when the extreme heat and dry weather scorched crop fields of more than 90 farms. Around 700 thousand euros were paid in compensations in a month. The bad days kept coming in August as well, as the harvesting started. BTA received five insurance claims from farms, where a spark struck by the harvester combine during threshing had caused fire and destroyed a large part of crops. Just a single case like that had been registered in 2020. Cooler and wetter weather that came in mid-August damaged part of the yet unharvested crops. Unusually frequently encountered were lost crops of beans.

Insurers this summer received a total of 187 insurance claims for the total amount of 1.7 million euros, which is nearly triple less than in 2020, when the weather conditions where even more devastating. Last summer, 273 insurance claims for 4.2 million euros were received.

“Although this year's harvest of cereal crops is considered bad, the fields have not suffered damage that vast as in 2020. Last year’s June and early July came with thunderstorms with hail, strong winds and rain. Many fields were flooded and the crops were completely destroyed. This year was also challenging. The rainy spring, the prolonged period of heat and drought and the wet end of summer dampened the initial optimistic forecasts. However, many farmers managed to thresh the winter crops before the August rains, and the summer crops had already grown enough so that the weather would not inflict that much damage. Therefore, those farms that survived the heat period, were lucky to end up with harvest,” explains Kārlis Liepiņš, Director of BTA Insurance Claims Handling Department. In general, this year's harvest varies greatly from region to region. In the heat-affected farms, the grain dried instead of ripening, therefore were not really suitable for food production, or were of lower quality.

BTA is the Latvian market leader in crop fields insurance, offering, for a streak of years, farmers to insure their crops, legumes and oil plants. BTA also is the pioneer insurer in Latvia, who offers an option to get insured against damages caused by wild animals and birds, as well as third-party illegal activity, lightning strike and fire risk.

About BTA

BTA Baltic Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance companies in the Baltics, offering the broadest range of non-life insurance services in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. BTA employs more than 1,000 employees in the Baltics. The shareholder of BTA is Vienna Insurance Group AG with close to 200 years of experience in the insurance business. With about 50 companies in 30 countries and more than 25,000 employees, Vienna Insurance Group is a clear market leader in its Central and Eastern European markets, and takes care of more than 22 million customers. Vienna Insurance Group is the best-rated company of ATX, the leading index of Vienna Stock Exchange (since 1994) with a rating of A+ with stable outlook from Standard & Poor’s. Vienna Insurance Group works in close partnership with Erste Group – the largest retail bank in CEE.

Additional information:
Elīna Zvejniece
Marketing and Public Relations Department Director
BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS
e-mail elina.zvejniece@bta.lv