ON the back of its grain marketing tie-up with Plum Grove last year comes another venture for FREE Eyre - insurance.
FREE Eyre will engage rural insurance specialist Ag Guard to work with farmers to understand their individual business insurance needs and then source the most appropriate and competitive products available to cover their insurable risk.
At the FREE Eyre annual meeting at Port Lincoln earlier this year, chief executive Mark Rodda said insurance was an area that grower-shareholders said they were interested in exploring.
FREE Eyre chairman Tom Wardle said the adequate protection of crops and farming assets was one of the most important annual investment decisions a farming family would make.
"At FREE Eyre, we have always believed that competition of critical inputs costs, like crop and farm insurance, is essential," he said.
"Only through new competition can we ensure that our shareholders and SA farmers are receiving the most competitively priced services, delivered locally and tailored to the individual farming entity."
Mr Wardle said Ag Guard was an authorised representative of the Winley Insurance Group and a specialist broker of agricultural insurance products, marketing its personalised services to the rural community across Australia.
Its business model focused on tailoring structured insurance products between growers and underwriters to address variable rural risks in a transparent manner - and benefiting by sharing in reduced-risk premiums.
"The Free Eyre's strategic partnership with Ag Guard is simple, personal and transparent," Mr Wardle said.
"The FREE Eyre team will introduce and refer growers to the Ag Guard team. Ag Guard will then search for the most appropriate and cost-effective insurance cover in the market place and make a formal proposal to the farmer, personally explaining the terms and conditions of the insurance cover that has been recommended."
Ag Guard identified a gap in the rural market place - to take the time to explain the features and benefits of the various policies available and tailor them to a farmer's situation.
* Full report in Stock Journal, July 31, 2014 issue.