Growing structures
Poly houses, igloos, glasshouses and shadecloth against storm, hail and wind damage.
Market Garden Insurance
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Market Garden Insurance
Cover for intensive vegetable growing, growing structures and produce.
Market gardens turn over crops in weeks, not seasons, so a loss lands on cash flow almost immediately. Hail through poly houses, a coolroom that fails overnight with a packed order inside, or floodwater across seedling beds can take out a planting and a supply contract at the same time. Most of the value sits in structures, refrigeration and standing produce rather than land.
What is it?
Market gardens are intensive vegetable and herb operations growing crops such as lettuce, brassicas, spring onions, tomatoes and Asian greens for wholesale markets and supermarket programs. They run poly tunnels and igloos, glasshouses, seedling nurseries, packing sheds, coolrooms, wash lines and drip irrigation, and cluster around Werribee South, the Sydney basin, Virginia in South Australia, Bundaberg and Carnarvon.
What does market garden insurance cover?
Refrigeration and spoilage
Coolroom plant breakdown and the packed produce spoiled as a result, subject to the policy terms.
Products liability
Liability arising from produce sold into wholesale markets and retail supply chains.
What affects the cost?
- Area under cover and structure type
- Coolroom capacity and plant age
- Annual turnover and supply contracts
- Flood and hail exposure
- Labour hire and contractor arrangements
Worth raising on the call
- Poly film and shadecloth are often sub-limited separately to hard-walled buildings.
- Spoilage cover is a distinct section to the refrigeration plant that caused it.
- Supermarket and HARPS supply agreements often set insurance limits your policy needs to match.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Hail through the igloos
A hailstorm shreds poly film across a run of igloos and flattens the lettuce and Asian greens underneath. The film, the hoops and frames, and the standing crop are usually three separate items on the same claim, each with its own limit.
Coolroom fails before a market run
A compressor drops out on a Friday night and a pallet of packed baby leaf destined for Monday's market is warm by morning. Whether the produce is recoverable generally depends on the spoilage section responding to the plant breakdown rather than to the produce alone.
Floodwater across seedling beds
Storm water runs through the wash line and seedling beds, silting drip lines and contaminating produce that was days from harvest. Product headed for a supermarket program typically has to be dumped on food safety grounds even where it still looks saleable.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming whether poly film, shadecloth and covers carry their own sub-limit, and whether the labour to re-skin structures is included or only the material cost.
- Worth confirming whether spoilage cover requires a breakdown of your own refrigeration plant, or also responds to a failure of the public power supply at the street.
- Worth confirming whether product recall and withdrawal costs sit inside the products liability section, since liability for injury and the cost of pulling stock back are commonly worded separately.
Common questions
Does market garden insurance cover crop loss from hail?
Cover for standing crop is generally arranged as a specific section rather than being automatic, and hail is one of the defined events it may respond to. What is covered, how the crop is valued, and whether crop under cover is treated differently to open field plantings all come back to the policy terms and the PDS.
Do I need products liability if I only sell to a wholesaler?
Selling through a wholesaler does not usually remove your exposure, because a claim can still trace back to the grower who supplied the produce. Products liability is commonly required by wholesale and supermarket supply agreements as well, so it is worth checking what limit your contracts specify.
Will my policy meet supermarket or HARPS supply requirements?
That depends on the limit, the wording and the certificate the buyer will accept, and supply agreements often set a minimum limit for public and products liability. It is generally worth handing the insurance clause of the agreement to your broker before renewal so the program can be matched to it rather than adjusted after a supplier audit.
What does market garden insurance cost?
It depends and cannot be quoted sight unseen. The usual drivers are the area under protected cropping and the structure type, coolroom capacity and plant age, annual turnover and supply contracts, flood and hail exposure at the address, and how labour hire and contractors are engaged.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See farm insurance for the wider picture.
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General information only. Any cover depends on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting, and policy terms. We use your details to respond to this enquiry.