Page 11 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

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TARSİM always searches for ways to be

the best

Serpil GÜNAL, Board Member of TARSİM and General Manager of Agricultural
Insurance Pool Management Company: “2020 has been a productive year for us, and
the system has continued to improve”

How developed is agricultural insurance business in our This year has gone under the shadow of the pandemic and
country? What do you think about the current situation com- disasters. What have been the impacts on the development
pared to other examples in the rest of the world? What are of agricultural insurance?
your actions for further improvement?
Unfortunately, our country has encountered coronavirus pan-
Since its foundation, TARSİM has always been in contact with demic in the beginning of this year, just like the rest of the world.
foreign counterparts. During the initial years, we closely moni- Its impacts are increasingly ongoing. I hope the pandemic will
tored similar systems and practices around the world and took come to end in our country and everywhere else in the world as
them as examples. But today, we have become a role model for soon as possible.
many countries that intend to establish similar systems. Our co-
operation with Azerbaijan and Agrar Insurance Fund, whic was On the other hand, agriculture is directly impacted by climate.
founded as a result of this cooperation, constitutes one of the As we have all monitored very closely, disasters caused by cli-
best examples of it. mate change include sudden changes in heat, hailstorms, floods,
tornados all around the world. As a result, agricultural activities
During our contacts and communications with foreign counter- are impacted badly.
parts, we clearly see that TARSİM is far more developed than
similar systems with the broadness of its coverage scope, di- As in previous years, this year, disasters have occurred in nearly
versity of insurance products, increasing state support over the every region of our country and caused loss of life as well as
years, and its sustainable structure. Naturally, every country has material damages. For instance, Adana, Bursa, Rize and Giresun
different dynamics, geographic conditions, approach to agricul- suffered from intense floods. As a result, lands where vegeta-
ture, and expectations. At this point, TARSİM is making us very bles, fruits, grains, and citrus fruits are grown were damaged.
proud with what has been achieved so far. In the first half of the year, frost in Eskişehir, Afyonkarahis-
ar, Kayseri and Konya damaged orchards; while hail damaged
In short, we are always searching for ways to be the best. grains, vegetables, and potatoes. Most products were damaged
due to hailstorms in Aksaray, İzmir, Kırklareli, Manisa, Şanlıur-
Can you inform us about Agrar Insurance Fund? fa, Tekirdağ and Tokat. Due to hail and storms that impacted
Finike and Kumluca provinces of Antalya, products and green
Our cooperation with Azerbaijan dates back to 2017. As a result houses were damaged. We stood by our producers in the after-
of heavy communication between two countries, we signed a Dec- math of all those disasters. Despite the difficult circumstances
laration of Intent on Cooperation for Agricultural Insurance with imposed by the pandemic, we have ensured loss adjustment and
Agrarian Insurance Fund of Azerbaijan Republic on 27 February claims operations to be run smoothly and claims payments to be
2020. The agreement was signed in Baku with the aim of estab- made without any problems. As the food supply has become more
lishing our agricultural insurance pool model in Azerbaijan, our important than ever, we have contributed to the continuation of
sister country. With the help of our intense communication for plantation activities of our farmers and producers. Therefore,
the new system, Agrarian Insurance Fund started operations and we have continued to provide services for and earn the trust of
issued its first policy on 3 November in Terter province. Turkish agriculture industry and our producers.

In the first phase, Agrarian Insurance Fund will offer insurance Both pandemic and disasters have impacted agricultural insur-
coverage for dairy cattle and buffalos between 1 and 7 years, ance. Therefore, we advise our producers to see insurance as an
wheat, barley, corn, potato, sugar beet, orange, lemon, tange- essential part of agricultural production and buy policies before
rine, tea, rice, tobacco, grape, hazelnut, cotton and aquaculture anything bad happens to prevent wasting their own efforts. This
products that are grown in pools and ponds. is why we try to keep agricultural insurance under the spotlight
at all times.
Our cooperation will increasingly continue in the coming terms.
We are very happy to have contributed to the establishment of a We are getting ready to leave 2020 behind. How do you eval-
similar system in Azerbaijan. We wish that this new system will uate this difficult time on behalf of TARSİM? Could you tell
be successful and bring all the best for Azerbaijan. us about your development journey? Have you initiated ben-
eficial campaigns for policyholders during the pandemic and