Farmers’ Market Insurance

A comprehensive farmers’ market insurance policy typically includes the following coverages:

• Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance: CGL, also referred to as slip-and-fall insurance, covers you for third-party bodily injury and property damage claims resulting from your business’s operations. For example, a customer visiting your display booth trips over an extension cord and is injured. CGL is designed to pay for the injured person’s medical expenses.

• Event Liability Insurance: Also known as vendor liability insurance, event liability insurance is designed to cover food vendors and other types of vendors participating in farmers’ markets against third-party bodily injury and third-party property damage claims. Most farmers’ market organizers and venue owners will require vendors to carry liability insurance that lists them as additional insureds on their policies. For example, if a venue owner’s property is damaged by actions you take at a farmers’ market, event liability insurance may cover the cost of those damages up to your policy’s coverage limit.

• Product Liability Insurance: You are liable for any product you manufacture, distribute, or sell at a farmers’ market, online, or in a brick-and-mortar retail store. Product liability insurance covers you for third-party bodily injury or property damage claims related to the items you sell to your customers. Product liability insurance may be included in your CGL coverage. If it isn’t, you can add it to your policy.

• Cyber Liability Insurance: Chances are you accept electronic payments from your customers whether you have a portable point-of-sale (POS) system or use a software provider. Either way, it’s your responsibility to protect your customers’ financial and private information. Cyber liability coverage provides you with financial support resulting from cybercrime, including repairs and restoration to the software you use, legal advice, credit monitoring, and more.

• Commercial Property Insurance: Commercial property insurance protects your booth, tables, tents, inventory, and business contents from loss or damage resulting from fire, flood, extreme weather, theft, and vandalism. It typically includes business interruption insurance that provides funds following an insurable loss to cover things like your overhead operating costs, employee wages, and taxes and loan payments.