Achmea Farm Insurance, a direct farm insurance provider, has signed a strategic partnership with Ausveg, the national body representing Australian vegetable growers.
The deal links the insurer with growers through industry events and shared risk management knowledge, a route that does not run through brokers.
The agreement pairs the insurer’s farm insurance and risk mitigation experience with Ausveg’s work on knowledge exchange and best-practice adoption, with a stated aim of supporting the long-term resilience of vegetable growers.
The two organisations will collaborate on industry issues, and growers will gain access to information, events and opportunities aimed at business management, operational continuity and risk mitigation.
The Ausveg agreement follows a similar arrangement struck in June with Protected Cropping Australia, the peak body for growers who produce crops in greenhouses and other covered structures.
That partnership centres on prevention-led guidance for glasshouse operations and includes sponsorship of the Protected Cropping Conference 2027 in Australia and GreenTech 2027 in the Netherlands.
The body puts the sector’s annual farmgate value at about $4.5 billion, or roughly 15% to 20% of Australia’s vegetable and flower production value.
The Netherlands link also extends to reinsurance. Hagelunie, the Achmea Group’s specialist greenhouse insurer, operates in markets including the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, France and Germany, and it provides greenhouse reinsurance to Achmea Farm Insurance in Australia.
Glenn Rosbrook, chief client officer at Achmea Farm Insurance, said the company sees its role extending past the moment something goes wrong and wants to help growers better understand and manage risk.
“Through our new strategic partnership with Ausveg, we look forward to sharing practical risk management knowledge and insights, including learnings from the Netherlands and other agricultural markets around the world,” Rosbrook said.
“It’s all part of our purpose of keeping farmers farming and growers growing,” he added.
Achmea has operated as a direct agricultural insurer since entering Australia in 2013. In September it opened a permanent office in Tamworth, NSW, where underwriting, client experience, policy support and growth staff work alongside Farm Insurance Specialists who visit clients on their properties.
Read more: Direct insurer opens Tamworth office in broker territory
The insurer has also used claims events to encourage clients to revisit their cover. In January, Achmea reported an increase in claims after bushfires in Victoria, flash flooding along the Great Ocean Road and flooding in northern Queensland, and it urged farmers to review their insurance during the season instead of waiting for renewal or a claim.
Competitors have reorganised their rural books over the past 16 months, much of it through brokers and agencies.
CGU and NRMA Insurance stopped selling farm insurance policies on July 1, 2025 and referred new customers to WFI, IAG’s intermediated business began an exclusive arrangement with agricultural agency Ag Guard in June 2026, and Allianz launched its refreshed Farm Pack on its Allianz Alive broker platform on July 20, 2026.
Brokers and other intermediaries accounted for 50% of gross written premium placed with APRA-authorised general insurers in the six months to June 2025, according to APRA data.
Rival insurers are adding prevention features of their own. In June, WFI gave all its farming clients and their families 24/7 mental health and safety support through Sonder, citing University of Canberra research that found only one in seven farmers could easily access mental health support.
Read next: WFI gives farming families 24/7 mental health and safety support
Australian vegetable production was worth $6 billion in 2024/25, according to Hort Innovation figures released in February. Ausveg said the average farmgate value of $1.59/kg was down more than 8% in real terms on two years earlier, and its surveys show two in five vegetable growers are considering leaving the industry.
“Our two companies share a common commitment to helping growers’ businesses by giving them access to practical information and connections that support the adoption of international best practice and help them manage risk,” said Ausveg chief executive Michael Coote.
Coote said vegetable growers would be able to draw on Achmea’s specialist and direct farm insurance knowledge and its local and international experience.
He said this would open opportunities for global knowledge sharing and connections with growers overseas, and he added that the partnership “will support Ausveg’s efforts in delivering relevant information, events and connections for Australian vegetable growers”.
