The 8th CARICOM Ministerial Taskforce (MTF) meeting which was held today has heard of progress towards regional agricultural insurance involving the Jamaican firm GraceKennedy and CCRIF.
A release from the Ministry of Agriculture said that Shaun Baugh, Programme Manager, Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Development at the CARICOM Secretariat disclosed that the MTF’s Agriculture Insurance Technical working group recently met with representatives of GraceKennedy Limited, one of the Caribbean’s largest Food and Financial corporate entities, to discuss the progress made thus far with developing and implementing the such a product.
“Late last year, we received a presentation from GraceKennedy Insurance out of Jamaica. They had presented on a particular product that they have ongoing in that member state and expressed an interest in scaling up and introducing it to the rest of the region. They have indicated that they have now been able to put a dedicated project team to get this product up and running and that they are near completion of negotiating with their reinsurance to carry the product. They have also submitted an implementation work plan and programme to which they have committed to. All in all, it amounts to a possible product being introduced by the first half of 2023,” Baugh said, according to the release.
Additionally, Baugh said that the MTF’s technical working group has also engaged the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).
“At our last meeting, we received a presentation from the CCRIF which indicated that they had several products available but in particular, they had a livelihood product that they were ready to go to market with. The technical working group also met with them recently and they indicated that they are prepared to launch their Livelihood Protection Policy in December 2022. They’ve also indicated that their insurance partner will be Garden Insurance Group Limited and that they identified Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago as countries to launch the pilot for the product. This product is also intended to be up and running by the first half of 2023,” Baugh noted, according to the release.
The release said that the ministerial taskforce was set up under Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali. It is chaired by Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha.
