Lose the Crop and You Lose a Season — Lose the Trees and You Lose a Decade.
Protecting orchards and the trees that carry them
Orchards and fruit and nut growers raise apples, citrus, stone fruit, and almonds on long-lived trees, and the defining exposure is that both the harvest and the trees themselves are at risk — a freeze, a frost, or a hailstorm can take the fruit, but a hard freeze or a disease outbreak can kill the trees outright, and an orchard replanted today will not bear a full crop for years. That replant lag makes tree loss categorically worse than a single bad harvest, and diseases like citrus greening and fire blight can move through a block and end a planting that took a decade to mature. An orchard needs coverage built around crop and tree loss, packing and storage operations, and the product liability that follows packed fruit to market. This is a specialized corner of farm insurance built for how perennial tree growers actually suffer loss.
Properly structured coverage protects the grower, the trees, and the fruit they bring to market.
The Fruit Grower's Signature Exposures
Crop and tree loss is the first defining exposure — frost, freeze, and hail routinely take a season's fruit, but the perennial tree is what sets orchards apart, because a killing freeze or a disease like citrus greening or fire blight can destroy the trees and force a multi-year replant before the operation bears again, a loss that dwarfs any single harvest. The second is the downstream operation: growers who run their own packing houses and cold storage take on premises, machinery, and spoilage exposure, and packed, graded, and sold fruit carries product-liability and contamination exposure once it enters commerce. Around those sit farm equipment on tractors and sprayers, seasonal and migrant harvest labor, pesticide drift, and irrigation dependence in a crop that cannot simply be left unwatered.
Key Risks in Fruit Growing
Fruit and nut growers face exposure related to:
Frost, freeze, or hail destroying a season's fruit crop
Citrus greening, fire blight, or other disease killing the trees and forcing a multi-year replant
A packing-house or cold-storage fire, breakdown, or spoilage loss
Product liability or contamination on packed and sold fruit
A tractor or sprayer fire, rollover, or breakdown
A seasonal or migrant worker injured during harvest or in the packing house
Pesticide or herbicide drift onto a neighbor's property, and irrigation-system failure
The loss of the trees themselves, not just the harvest, is what most defines the orchard.
Core Coverages for Orchards
A properly built orchard program typically includes:
Farm Property — Covers buildings, barns, packing structures, and the insurable value of the trees and plantings.
Crop & Tree Insurance — Protects both the fruit crop and the perennial trees, placed through specialized crop and MPCI markets.
Farm Equipment / Inland Marine — Covers tractors, sprayers, harvest equipment, and in-transit or off-site property.
Product Liability — Covers packed, graded, and sold fruit if it causes illness or injury downstream.
Farm / General Liability — Covers premises and operations, including any on-site sales or farm-stand exposure.
Commercial Auto — Covers farm trucks and vehicles hauling fruit, supplies, and equipment.
Workers' Compensation — Provides legally required coverage for harvest and packing injuries, often involving seasonal and migrant crews.
Pollution Liability — Addresses pesticide and herbicide drift, overspray, and tank rupture that base farm liability limits.
Equipment Breakdown (Cold Storage) — Covers sudden failure of refrigeration and controlled-atmosphere storage that spoils stored fruit.
Umbrella / Excess Liability — Adds higher limits above the primary program given product and packing severity.
What's Commonly Overlooked
Orchard programs are most often weakened by:
No insurable value assigned to the trees, so a disease or freeze that kills them is uncovered
Cold-storage breakdown and spoilage treated as maintenance rather than a covered loss
Product liability missing once the grower packs and sells fruit into commerce
Agritourism or farm-stand sales excluded from base liability
Irrigation-system failure left uninsured in a crop that cannot go unwatered
The gap that hurts most is the uninsured tree value behind a crop that takes years to replace.
Real-World Claim Examples
A hard freeze kills a citrus block and the trees must be pulled and replanted
Fire blight spreads through an apple orchard and ends the planting
A controlled-atmosphere cold store fails and spoils the packed harvest
Packed fruit is linked to a contamination recall after it reaches retail
A harvest worker is injured in the packing house or falls from a ladder
Any one of these can be severe, and the tree-loss and cold-storage claims are the most distinctive.
Regulatory & Compliance Context
Fruit and nut growers operate under the USDA Risk Management Agency's federal crop and tree programs, and the EPA together with state agriculture departments license pesticide application and govern drift. Growers who pack and sell produce fall under the FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule, which sets federal standards for growing, harvesting, and packing, and farms employing H-2A guest workers must provide workers'-comp-equivalent benefits to all employees. State agriculture departments also administer quarantine and tree-pest programs that can restrict movement of fruit and nursery stock during a disease outbreak.
Why Proper Placement Matters
Underwriters weigh planted acreage, the species and age of the trees, crop and tree values, freeze and disease history, whether the grower runs a packing house and cold storage, the product-liability exposure on sold fruit, the seasonal labor force, and loss history, and the insurable value of the trees plus the packing operation drive the appetite as much as the fruit itself. Established growers with moderate exposure often place in the admitted market, while high-value plantings, extensive packing and cold storage, and significant product exposure can move to surplus lines. The crop and tree coverage is placed through crop and MPCI specialists, and coordinating it with the farm property, packing, and product-liability placement is what keeps the coverage whole.
Our Approach
At Cory Washington & Co., we insure fruit and nut growers around both the harvest and the trees that produce it, assigning insurable value to the plantings and coordinating the crop and tree program through crop and MPCI markets. We structure the packing, cold-storage, and product-liability exposure around how the fruit moves to market, and add pollution, workers' compensation, and umbrella where the operation calls for them. We also insure related operations, including broader farms, equipment breakdown for cold storage, and product liability for packed goods.
Your fruit is a season's work and your trees are a decade's — we build coverage that protects both.
All insurance descriptions on this website are provided by Cory Washington & Co. LLC strictly for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, legal, financial, or insurance advice. The information presented is general in nature and does not guarantee the availability, terms, conditions, or scope of any insurance coverage. Actual coverage is determined solely by the specific policy language issued by the insurer and remains subject to underwriting approval. Nothing on this website creates or implies an agent-client relationship, binds coverage, or alters any existing policy. Cory Washington & Co. LLC expressly disclaims any liability for actions taken, or not taken, based on the content provided here. For advice regarding your particular situation, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional at Cory Washington & Co. LLC or another qualified insurance professional, and always review your policy documents in full.
See the coverages an orchard & fruit grower business may carry — core, prevalent, and situational — plus the gap most often missed, in the Orchard & Fruit Grower Coverage Checklist.
Complete the Orchard & Fruit Grower Supplemental online in a few guided steps, download the fillable PDF, or browse all applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get orchard & fruit grower insurance through Cory Washington & Co.?
Request a quote or contact our team. We start with a short conversation about your operations, analyze your exposures, then negotiate orchard & fruit grower insurance across multiple carriers that compete for your account and present options with the trade-offs explained. Cory Washington & Co. LLC is licensed in all 50 states.
What does orchard & fruit grower insurance cost?
Premiums vary from business to business. The main drivers of orchard & fruit grower insurance pricing are the nature of your operations, your revenue and payroll, your loss history, and the limits you carry. Rather than quote a flat figure, we negotiate across several markets and walk you through the options, so you only pay for the protection you actually need.
Is orchard & fruit grower insurance required?
Whether orchard & fruit grower insurance is strictly required depends on your state, your contracts, and your lenders or clients. Even where it is not mandatory, going without it can leave serious financial gaps. We assess your exposure and any contractual requirements, then structure coverage that meets both.
What if another agency has already declined or non-renewed my coverage?
Difficult, specialty, and previously-declined placements are a core part of our work. We access excess & surplus (E&S) and specialty markets that many generalist agencies cannot, and we explain the trade-offs clearly so you can decide with confidence.
Available in all 50 states. See how requirements differ in California, Texas, Florida, New York, or choose your state.