Drought boosts crop insurance claims to record levels

Banco do Brasil e Mapfre stated recently that the country has set a new record of crop insurance claims from December of last year. Since then, 2,000 claims were made generating payments totaling nearly USD117 million to approximately 5,000 farmers. 

The main reason attributed to the record is the drought in grain planting areas of the southern part of the country. In 2012, a year that saw huge drought on soybean fields, 5,000 claims were made in the whole year. 

“The drought is more severe than previously thought. This is a new record of claims," Luis Carlos Guedes Pinto, director of crop insurance of the group, said in a press release. The latest National Supply Company report reduced the Brazilian production of soybeans by 5 million tonnes to 85.4 million tonnes.