A farm policy stops where the food business starts.
Our Fraser Highway office in Surrey is the closest S&S counter to Abbotsford, straight along the highway. Walk in without an appointment to go through barns and equipment, packing and cold storage, product liability and the fleet, or call and we will handle it from there.
Call 604-319-1000 Branch details and hours Build your fileWhere can I find a farm and business insurance broker near Abbotsford?
Our nearest office to Abbotsford is at 104A-19151 Fraser Hwy, Surrey, a straight run along the highway. Walk in during opening hours with no appointment to go through barns, greenhouses and equipment, cold storage, packing and processing, product liability, trucks and trailers, and the certificates a buyer is asking you for. Call 604-319-1000, or use our Delta branch if you need somewhere open in the evening or on a Sunday.
What we are asked for most here.
Land, buildings and a growing season, and then a second business bolted onto the first one. That is where the questions start:
Barns, greenhouses and equipment
Outbuildings, livestock, machinery and farm liability, none of which sit inside a standard home policy. Farm and acreage insurance.
When you start packing and processing
Washing, grading, cutting and packing is a process, not a harvest, and it is insured like one. Manufacturing and wholesale insurance.
Selling onto somebody else’s shelf
A wholesale contract brings limits, certificates and a claim that can arrive long after the delivery. Wholesale and distribution insurance.
When the cold room stops
Power, a compressor or a supplier, and a season’s work is at risk before anyone can get it repaired. Business interruption insurance.
Trucks, trailers and the farm fleet
Owned units, hired units, and the staff member who runs to town in their own vehicle. Commercial vehicle and fleet insurance.
Declined or hard to place
Older barns, wood heat, a claims history, vacant buildings, distance from a fire hall. Send us the letter.
Where the farm policy ends and the business policy begins.
A holding that grows, packs and sells is three businesses wearing one name. Each stage is insured differently, and the seams between them are where people find out too late.
Stage one
Growing
Land, crop and weather. This is the part a farm policy was built for, and the part most owners already have covered.
Stage two
The buildings
Barns, greenhouses, cold rooms and the machinery in them. A fire here costs a season, not a shed.
Stage three
Washing, grading and packing
The moment produce is handled and prepared for sale, a farm operation starts looking like a food plant to an underwriter.
Stage four
Selling
Gate, market or a wholesale contract. The contract is where the limits and the certificate requirements appear.
Stage five
Somebody else’s shelf
Your name on a label, and a claim that can arrive months after the truck left.
Where the farm policy ends
A holding that grows, packs and sells is three businesses wearing one name. A farm policy is built for the growing and the buildings. The further produce is handled and sold on, the more an underwriter reads it as a food business.
An operation that does both usually needs both policies, not one stretched to cover the lot.
| Stage from field to invoice | A farm policy | A business policy |
|---|---|---|
| GrowingGrowing is what a farm policy is built for. The land, the crop and the weather all sit here. | A farm policy: Usually answered here | A business policy: Not what this policy is built for |
| The buildingsBarns, greenhouses, cold rooms and the machinery inside them are what a farm policy is built for. A fire here costs a season, not a shed. | A farm policy: Usually answered here | A business policy: Not what this policy is built for |
| Washing, grading and packingSorting and washing usually still sit on the farm side. Once the handling goes further than that, an underwriter starts reading the operation as a food business. | A farm policy: Depends how far the operation goes | A business policy: Depends how far the operation goes |
| SellingSelling at the gate or a farm stand usually still sits on the farm side. A wholesale contract usually does not, and the contract is where the limits and the certificate requirements appear. | A farm policy: Depends how far the operation goes | A business policy: Usually answered here |
| Somebody else on-selling itOnce your name is on a label on somebody else’s shelf, a claim can arrive months after the truck left. That is what a business liability policy is built for. | A farm policy: Not what this policy is built for | A business policy: Usually answered here |
These sentences say what each policy is built to do. They do not say a claim will be paid, and they do not say one will be refused. Your own wording decides.
Bring the buyer’s contract and a description of what actually happens on site. That conversation is shorter than it sounds and it settles most of this.
Three things that catch people out here.
Spoilage is its own question
Stock lost because the cold failed is not the same claim as stock lost in a fire. Spoilage and equipment breakdown.
Recall is not product liability
Liability answers for the harm the product causes. Getting it back off the shelf is separate. Why the two are not the same.
How long the income cover runs
The indemnity period runs from the loss, not from the day you are trading normally again. A season does not wait. How long it pays.
General information only. What is covered is decided by the wording of the policy actually issued to you.
Getting to us from Abbotsford.
104A-19151 Fraser Hwy, Surrey, a straight run along the highway from Abbotsford. No appointment needed.
Opening hours
Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:00, Saturday 10:00 to 17:00, closed Sunday.
Open later?
Our Delta office is open seven days a week, until 9pm Monday to Saturday and 8pm on Sunday.
Rather not come in?
Call 604-319-1000 or send us what you need and choose how we reply.
From growers, packers and food businesses.
Does a farm policy cover produce I wash, pack and sell?
A farm policy is written for growing. Handling and preparing food for sale is treated as a process, which brings in product liability, the stock itself and the equipment doing the work. Tell us what happens on site and we will match the cover to it.
I sell at the gate and at farmers markets. Does that change my insurance?
It can. Selling to the public brings liability for what people eat and for anyone on your property, and a market organiser may ask to see a certificate before giving you a stall.
What happens if the cold room fails and I lose the crop?
That is a spoilage question, and it is handled separately from fire and theft. The cause matters as well, because a breakdown inside the unit and a power cut outside it are treated differently.
A grocery buyer is asking for an insurance certificate. What do they want?
Normally a liability limit they name, confirmation that product liability is included, and their own company added to your policy. Send us the clause and we will tell you what it is asking for.
Is there an insurance broker near Abbotsford open on a Sunday?
Our Delta branch at 2-8195 120 St is open seven days a week, Sunday 10:00 to 20:00.
Do your brokers speak Punjabi?
Yes. Our team speaks Punjabi and Hindi, as well as English, Italian, Cantonese and Mandarin.
The guides that matter most here.
You did not make it, you grew it
A claimant can name any party in the chain that put the product in front of them. Why the claim still reaches you.
How your stock is valued
Actual cash value pays what it was worth on the day, not what it costs to replace. Replacement cost or actual cash value.
Property steps around the motor
Compressors, chillers and pumps. The policy answers for the machine, not for what happens inside it. Why property skips the motor.
Water is the fussiest peril
Some water, not all of it, and the differences are larger than the word suggests. What water damage cover does.
Tools and equipment off the yard
What a policy asks of you in return, and where cover stops once the tools leave the yard. Tools and equipment theft.
What liability does not do
The exclusions people are most surprised by, in plain words. What general liability does not cover.
Why so much of this work runs through Abbotsford.
The City of Abbotsford publishes the shape of its farming from the 2011 Census of Agriculture. It counted 1,282 farms in operation and more than 7,000 people working on them. Just over half of those farms sit between 10 and 69 acres, another 35 per cent are under 10 acres, and only 1 per cent run beyond 400 acres. Sixty five per cent of the land in production is farmer owned.
Source: City of Abbotsford, agriculture profile, drawn from the 2011 Census of Agriculture. It opens in a new tab. The figures are the City’s, not ours, and the census is taken every five years.
The shape matters more than the totals. These are small holdings, most of them owned by the people working them, and a business that size does not keep a risk department down the hall. When one of them starts washing, packing and selling under its own label, the policy written for a farm is not the policy the new business needs.
Not sure what you are carrying and what you are not? Run the Risk Snapshot, or read the insurance guides.
Come in, or call us.
104A-19151 Fraser Hwy, Surrey. No appointment, no ticket, no call centre.
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