Agras business sees 3-fold decline in Q1

Agricultural insurance company Agras, a member of the Vienna Insurance Group, underwrote gross premiums worth 1.2 million RON (0.36 million euros) in the first quarter of this year, almost three times less than the 3.4 million RON (around 1 million euros) in the same period last year. “Agricultural insurance often fluctuates throughout the year, and the first quarter is not representative of the companies involved in agricultural insurance. In this period, we only closed contracts for livestock insurance. This type of insurance is under development, but it is not our core business,” said representatives of Agras. They explained that the insurance of farming crops accounts for the biggest share of Agras’ business. “Our activity peaks in the spring and in the autumn. We will only see a substantial increase in premiums in the second quarter,” added the company officials. The insurer posted a 2.46 million-RON (0.7 million-euro) net profit in the first three months of the year, an approximately ten-fold increase against the 240,246 RON seen in the same period of 2006,which was caused by a variation of the premium reserve of 2.4 million RON. The company started to sell agricultural insurance exclusively in 2005, after it transferred its portfolio of non-agricultural insurance to Unita, another member of Vienna Insurance, which holds 75% of the shares.