View Rule

The proposed rule will amend the Common Crop Insurance Regulations; Apple Crop Provisions to address recommendations from:  a contracted study, feedback during nationwide listening sessions, direct producer input, and crop insurance industry engagement.  The changes will improve the program’s actuarial performance while simultaneously providing apple producers with more meaningful coverage.  Proposed changes include: 

• Allow different coverage levels and percent of price elections by type;
• Allow producers’ premiums to be reduced in response to orchard management practices, such as removing or grafting trees, that typically occur after the acreage reporting date and decrease an orchard’s productivity;
• Allow a higher insurable price for apples sold predominantly to a direct market or a premium processing market;
• Eliminate vulnerability under the Quality Option in which producers can sell production as fresh without a grade, yet receive full compensation from the sale of the production, and compensation through their crop insurance policy; 
• Exclude slicers” from insurable fresh types; and
• Introduce a fresh fruit factor (FFF) to account for the reduced market value of production insured under the Quality Option that is sold for a grade other than U.S. Fancy.