Landmark deal creates new opportunities to increase value across agricultural ecosystem for growers to capitalize on their data with premium insurance solutions
WINNIPEG, Manitoba and SÃO PAULO, Brazil – January 15, 2020 — Farmers Edge™, a global leader in digital agriculture, and Fairfax Brasil, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, have joined forces to bring customized, data-driven crop insurance to growers in Brazil. This agreement connects a world-class risk management platform, powered by field-centric data and artificial intelligence, with premium insurance as the foundation for developing innovative solutions that address risk factors more directly, dynamically, and affordably for both growers and insurers. Disrupting traditional crop insurance with the use of real-time data and science-derived insights, this shift creates an opportunity for coverage to become more individualized to a grower’s needs based on changing risks and the actions taken by the grower to mitigate those risks.
Brazil is the fourth largest food producer in the world, but growers continue to face challenges surrounding collecting and accessing the right data to enable more efficient, sustainable, and profitable farming. This data-sparse environment creates a chain of inefficiencies for all stakeholders of the farm by forcing manual processes and uninformed decision-making.
Focused on creating a fully-connected digital agricultural ecosystem, Farmers Edge provides a unique solution that includes the hardware, software, analytics, and infrastructure needed for technology-driven agriculture. Through this partnership, customers are enabled with the most advanced field-level risk management platform available, including: on-farm weather stations, telematics devices, high-resolution satellite imagery, and a suite of exclusive digital tools, such as highly-precise predictive crop models and automatic crop health change detection. Additionally, Fairfax partners will gain greater visibility of the farms they cover to manage risk better and to provide superior customer service to their clients through automated claims processing, advanced claim analytics, cognitive reporting, and new options to meet individual needs and parameters.
“At Farmers Edge, we’re committed to helping growers protect the economic viability of the farm,” said Wade Barnes, Farmers Edge CEO. “Only around 10 percent of growers in Brazil are insured today, putting most farms at risk of financial ruin. Through this partnership, we can seamlessly connect field data—which shows when crops were planted, combined, and harvested, or which crops have been damaged by weather events—with automated insurance processing to accelerate insurance operations and pay-outs, while also enabling growers to be more efficient, sustainable, and profitable.”
“This partnership with Farmers Edge is very strategic for Fairfax Brasil in automating manual, paper-based processes that slow down both growers and partners,” said Bruno Camargo, Fairfax Brasil CEO. “With government insurance subsidy programs expected to grow 170% in 2020, growers in Brazil are looking for innovative, new insurance products that fit their specific needs, offer a safety net that many do not have today, and can accelerate new product and coverage creation. We are excited to be offering a precision and risk management platform that will enable our growers and partners to be more successful and profitable.”
About Farmers Edge
Farmers Edge is a global leader in digital agriculture delivering cutting-edge solutions powered by a unique combination of field-centric data, artificial intelligence, and complete integration. Since 2005, Farmers Edge has transformed the industry with disruptive technologies and strategic partnerships designed to enhance connectivity across the entire agricultural ecosystem. With the most comprehensive data management platform on the market–FarmCommand™–Farmers Edge is revolutionizing the way farmers, agricultural professionals, and agri-businesses interact with data. Moving at the speed of digital with an elite team focused on innovation, machine learning, and IoT, Farmers Edge is creating new opportunities for all stakeholders and shaping the future of agriculture worldwide.
To learn more about Farmers Edge, visit FarmersEdge.ca or FarmersEdgeUSA.com.
About Fairfax Brasil
Fairfax Brasil Seguros Corporativos S.A. was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairfax in 2009. Based on São Paulo, Fairfax Brasil underwriting risks in the following areas: Property & Casualty, Cargo, Financial Lines, Agribusiness and Affinity. Working with focus to provide differentiated and innovative services incorporate risk transfer, ensuring sustainable growth and providing a long term relationship with brokers, clients, suppliers and employees. In 2018, Gross Written Premiums (GWP) were BRL 526 million (US$ 144 million) and the company had shareholders’ equity of BRL 268.8 million (US$ 69.1 million) and there were 151 employees. For more information visit: www.fairfax.com.br
Media Contact:
Farmers Edge
Jill Reed or Peter Brooks
Sift Communications for Farmers Edge
farmersedge@siftpr.com
Ph: +1-415-722-2433
