The WA Government will look at crop insurance products as part of a $7.8 million aid package to farmers on the state.

“The government and industry are examining other measures to build the sustainability and profitability of farm businesses and the sector into the future, including crop insurance products,” Premier Colin Barnett said last week.

Swiss Re has been investigating the launch of a crop insurance product in Australia and has been talking to farmers and interested parties for a number of months, insuranceNEWS.com.au understands.

A Canadian insurer, Latevo International, is also claiming to be looking at launching a crop insurance product in Australia.

A company of that name was registered in Australia last year with an address at Coleraine in Victoria, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) register of businesses.

But the company has no Australian financial services licence, and an ASIC spokesman declined to tell insuranceNEWS.com.au if the company has applied for one.

Latevo is also not on the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s list of registered insurers, and a spokesman there also declined to comment on whether the company had applied to be approved as an insurer.

An “Australian assurance adviser” at Latevo International, Brendan Reinheimer, did not return calls from insuranceNEWS.com.au. Based in the Victorian town of Horsham, he was previously a senior agronomist at Elders Rural Services and is believed to have joined Latevo in February.

The Muntadgin Farming Alliance in WA has undertaken a survey of 200 local farmers and 84% said they would take up crop insurance.

But that may be too late for some, as 26% of those surveyed said banks are insisting their farms must be listed for sale by the end of this year if they don’t make budget.