Agroseguro’s General Shareholders’ Meeting gives green light to the 2022 financial accounts

Agroseguro’s Shareholders’ General Meeting convened on 30 March and approved the Annual Report for 2022, comprising the Annual Accounts, the Management Report and the Statement of Non-Financial Information, noting the remarkable growth observed in agricultural insurance.

The year concluded with the closure of combined agricultural insurance with commercial premiums amounting to 834 million euros. This represents a 4.3% increase compared to the previous year's figures. Productions like arable crops, fruit trees, wine grapes, and citrus orchards contributed to this growth. In 2022, the value of insured production reached a historic high for the eighth consecutive year, reaching 16.28 billion euros, representing a 3.9% increase compared to 2021. The accrued premiums, including those underwritten in 2022 but partly corresponding to 2023 risk, have shown a 3.4% increase, totalling 859 million euros.

The claims ratio for 2022 has experienced a significant increase of 7.9% compared to the previous year, reaching 807 million euros. This results in a claims-to-premium ratio of 121%, which is well above the technical balance. This trend has been consistent for the past three years and has remained unchanged since 2012, with only two exceptions, 2016 and 2020. 2022 has set a new record in the 43-year history of agricultural insurance, even surpassing 2012, which was marked by severe drought and other risks.

During the course of the previous fiscal year, a wide range of extreme weather phenomena have occurred, especially of note:

• Extensive frosts in the Ebro valley, plateaus and the Mediterranean slope at the onset of April, causing considerable crop damages across various fruit tree species, as well as almond trees in producing areas throughout the region.
• The lack of rainfall persisted from the start of the hydrological year in October 2021 until mid-June 2022, leading to a prolonged period of water scarcity. This peaked in May due to an rising temperatures and, coupled with the exceptionally high values recorded during summer, had a detrimental effect on rainfed crops.
• Furthermore, hailstorms during the spring and particularly the summer resulted in significant damage to fruit trees, vineyards, citrus orchards, and extensive herbaceous fields, with notable impacts observed in Castilla, Aragon, and the Valencian Community.

In 2022, there were 1.67 million claims, an increase of 53,300 claims compared to the previous year. Out of the total, 116,893 claims were related to agricultural productions and 97,423 to livestock. Additionally, there were over 1.46 million services provided for the removal and disposal of dead animals on farms. Average time taken to pay insured parties has been significantly decreased to 24 days for agricultural insurance and 26 days for livestock insurance, starting from the final appraisal of the claim.

In terms of the technical result, there are two specific aspects that have distinguished this year from previous ones. On one hand, the claims ratio for the year primarily affected the insurance lines that have greater reinsurance protection from the Insurance Compensation Consortium. On the other hand, the Consortium has implemented a new layer of reinsurance to limit the retention of excess losses and safeguard the stabilisation reserve. Therefore, the 2022 technical account has closed positively by almost 25 million euros, of which 17.5 million have been allocated to the stabilisation reserve.

Lastly, in the General Shareholders' Meeting, recognition was given to the general manager, Inmaculada Poveda, who will retire on April 1st, after 17 years of service. From that date onwards, Sergio de Andrés Osorio, who previously served as the Director of Production and Communication, will assume the role of general manager at Agroseguro.