Insuring Fruit Trees

Insuring Fruit Trees

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
With the Fruit Grower Report, I'm Susan Allen . Insuring Fruit Trees and orchards, it's a lot more complicated than one would think. Here's Rebecca Gebbers of VIP Insurance Agency in Brewster WA to explain what is involved.

Gebbers: The average person would look at a tree where there was damage and think oh that's too bad there's been a fruit that was lost. But to a grower they look at it differently. It's not just a single crop that was lost you have to potentially regrow an entire tree. And a standard apple tree if it has to be replanted take three to five years to begin reproducing again. And then it still is minimal in it's production; it slowly increases so you could be looking at several years of lost returns on a block that has to be replanted due to damage.

How do orchards fare against wildfire damage

Gebbers: An orchard can sustain fire damage just like a home can. It typ[ically does not penetrate into an orchard because it's an irrigated crop but during the wildfires two years ago there were many orchards that had damage to the perimeter even somewhere the fire was hot enough that it burned straight through. So you are looking at trees that have to be torn out production that's lost, fences that are burned ,irrigation equipment that needs to be replaced. It can be a pretty substantial loss.

Monday, the two-year anniversary of the Fire and how Brewster and surrounding communities are recovering.

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