China's agricultural insurance premium income has maintained a steady and positive growth in recent years, rising to CNY57.3bn ($8.3bn) in 2018 from CNY30.7bn in 2013.

Data compiled by Beijing Business News show that in the 2013-2018 period, agricultural insurance premium income was as follows:

Year	Premium CNY bn	Change over previous year
2013	30.7	27.4%
2014	32.8	6.3%
2015	37.5	15.1%
2016	41.8	11.4%
2017	47.9	14.7%
2018	57.3	19.5%

Despite the growth, agricultural insurance experts say that there are still difficulties faced in this line of business. One issue is difficulty in determining agricultural insurance premium rates. This is attributed mainly to the lack of basic data and the strong voice of local governments in pricing.

For instance, determination of premium pricing requires price data, production data, and information about the relationship between income and price. However, the prices of bulk agricultural products are controlled by the state, resulting in a lack of market-oriented price information. In addition, output data are not very accurate.

Some agricultural practitioners said that at present, policy-backed insurance products account for more than 90% of agricultural insurance business. Thus, underwriting, claims and pricing are decided by relevant government departments and insurance companies.