USDA Introduces New Grapevine Insurance Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new grapevine insurance program within its crop insurance solutions. The program will provide coverage for loss of grafted vines caused by natural perils such as freeze, fire, hail and flood.

The program, which is included in crop is based on the Tree Based Dollar Amount of Insurance Plan. An occurrence loss option offers coverage for smaller losses at an additional premium.

The program is classified as a “mortality policy” that pays losses when the vine is dead or so badly damaged it will not recover in the following 12 months, the USDA said.

“We are always striving to offer the strongest risk management resources for our nation’s agricultural producers—sometimes by improving an already existing product or identifying a gap in crop insurance options and creating a new product like this one for Grapevine,” said Marcia Bunger, Administrator for the USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA). “A program like this is especially critical when you realize the loss of fruit can affect a grower for a season, but the loss of a grapevine is a much more costly situation, both in money and the time it takes to reestablish a productive vine. This is one of the strongest reasons producers were requesting coverage possibilities like this Grapevine insurance program — and we listened.”

USDA offers an existing grape crop insurance program that covers the fruit growing on the vine.

The grapevine insurance program will launch for the 2024 crop year and will be available in select counties in California, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. The deadline for signing up for the program is November 1, 2023.

Photo: A vineyard planted at Montana State University.