The insurance of agricultural land and livestock is consistently growing in importance, especially in emerging markets – where above all government subsidies for multi-risk covers are ensuring a rising premium volume for primary insurers. Demand for reinsurance protection consequently further increased in the year under review. This trend is also evident from our portfolio; we substantially boosted our premium volume relative to the previous year.

Our underwriting policy in 2011 was driven by the goal of further optimising our portfolio. We therefore expanded profitable business relationships while at the same time scaling back shares in instances where we no longer considered the rates to be commensurate with the risks.

We also continued to work on the regional spread of our portfolio in the year under review, stepping up our involvement in emerging markets such as India and China. Yet we by no means lost sight of traditional markets such as the United States or Western Europe. Following the market regulation introduced for reinsurers in Argentina with effect from 1 September 2011 our business opportunities there have been limited. It is our hope that these entry barriers will be dismantled and fair competition – which also benefits local clients – will once again be possible.

The performance of our business with agricultural risks was adversely affected in the year under review by frost damage in Mexico. The associated net strain for our account was in the order of EUR 50 million. This loss event pushed prices for reinsurance covers higher, causing them to triple.