Forte, a leading insurance company in Cambodia, has teamed up with Commercialisation of Aquaculture for Sustainable Trade- (CAST) Cambodia and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture to study providing insurance services to the Cambodian aquaculture sector. The agreement on the study was signed on June 3.
It will explore how to expand insurance services to those in the aquaculture sector that are considered vulnerable to climate change, said York Chamroeunrith, CEO of Forte Group.
“We see the risks to the aquaculture sector from climate change [and the burden that places on producers] once their production [is] lost,” Chamroeunrith told Khmer Times.
“[Expanding] the scope of insurance will reduce financial risks [to those in the sector],” he said. The study will take effect from the date of signing till October next year.
The number of aqua-culturists in Cambodia has notedly increased as a result of the government’s policy to boost domestic aquaculture to supply domestic demand, increase exports and reduce dependence on imports.
Data from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries for 2020, pegged the year’s yield in aquaculture at 400,000 tons, a 30 percent increase over 2019.
The insurance sector in Cambodia earned $271.5 million in premiums last year, an increase of 7.31 per cent from 2019’s $253 million, the Insurance Association of Cambodia reported on May 12.
General insurance premiums in 2020 totalled $113.8 million, up 10.5 percent over 2019, with life insurance premiums reaching $152.3 million, an increase of 6.6 per cent year-on-year. General insurance accounted for 41.9 of total premium revenue. Life insurance premiums amounted to 56.1 per cent of the total.
Micro-insurance premiums accounted for $5.4 million, a decrease if 24.6 per cent year-on-year and represented approximately two per cent of total premiums revenue.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
