When you enrol in Production Insurance, you are guaranteed a level of production based on your yield history and the level of coverage you choose. A claim may be paid if an insured peril causes your yield to fall below your guaranteed value.
Production Insurance covers you for losses due to adverse weather, disease, pests, wildlife, or other uncontrollable natural perils, except for perils excluded in the Contract of Insurance – General Terms and the Commodity-Specific Terms: Fruit on the Publications page.
Available coverage
Production Insurance for sweet cherries provides multi-peril protection for all fresh and processing crops.
Tree coverage
Choose either standard tree mortality loss coverage, at no cost to you, or additional tree mortality loss coverage, offering you greater coverage at a lower deductible level.
See the Example scenario to help you choose the option that best meets your needs.
Fruit tree rider coverage
The fruit tree rider is added to your coverage if your trees were insured in the previous crop year, or if you notified Agricorp by September 1 and meet eligibility requirements. Newly planted trees must have been planted by June 10 to be eligible for coverage in the next crop year.
The fruit tree rider gives you additional protection if your sweet cherry trees die as a result of one or more insured perils.
For more information about this coverage, including how to qualify, see the Fruit Tree and Grapevine Riders feature sheet.
Calculating your coverage and claims
Your coverage depends on:
- Your final average yield
- Your claim price
- Your coverage level
- Your guaranteed production
- Your guaranteed value
Final average yield (FAY)
An FAY is calculated and used as a benchmark to determine if your actual production is below average.
For more information, see the 
Final Average Yield feature sheet.
FAY for existing participants
Your FAY is based on your yields from your 6 most recent years.
FAY for new participants
You are assigned an underwritten FAY for the first 6 years of production based on a variety of factors, including:
- Acreage
- Age of trees
- Available production records
- Drainage
- Irrigation capabilities
- Location of orchard
- Other management practices
- Regional weather patterns
- Rootstocks
- Soil type
- Spacing of trees
- Tree health
- Varieties grown
For each year that you participate, your actual yield replaces an underwritten yield until your FAY is composed entirely of your own actual yields.
Yield Buffering
Unusually high and low yields are buffered to stabilize and lessen the impact of extreme yields on your FAY.
- If your actual yield is above the upper threshold (130% of your FAY), the yield is buffered two-thirds of the way down to the upper threshold.
- If your actual yield is below the lower threshold (70% of your FAY), the yield is buffered two-thirds of the way up to the lower threshold.
Quality factor
If an insured peril reduces the quality of a crop, a quality factor may be applied to the yield to better reflect the price you receive.
If a sweet cherry crop is sold to a winery or distiller for less than the price of undamaged fruit, the yield of damaged cherries is reduced by 50% to reflect this loss.
Quality factor = price received for crop ÷ fresh claim price
Claim price
When you apply or renew, you select a claim price that determines your guaranteed value. You have two options:
- Fresh claim price option: Your fresh production is valued at the fresh claim price and your processing production is valued at the processing claim price.
- Processing claim price option: Both processing and fresh production are valued at the processing claim price.
When choosing a claim price option, fresh crops may be insured at the lower processing claim price, but processing crops cannot be insured at the higher fresh claim price.
Note: Your Production Insurance coverage is automatically renewed at the claim price option you selected in the previous year. To make changes to your coverage, contact Agricorp by the date on your renewal. For more information, see the Deadlines page.
Coverage level
When you apply or renew each year, you choose 1 coverage level from several available options. It determines your guaranteed production.
Guaranteed production
Guaranteed production is determined by multiplying your FAY by your selected coverage level. This number is used to calculate your guaranteed value.
Guaranteed production = FAY × your selected coverage level
Guaranteed value
Guaranteed value converts your guaranteed production into a dollar amount so your premiums can be calculated and any production loss claims can be paid.
Guaranteed value = guaranteed production × your selected claim price
