Shipping orchids to UK from US

[Marissa]

Hello everyone,

I am just wondering, has anybody shipped orchid to UK from USA and is CITES or Phytosanitary paperwork required? or has any of our UK members receive/bought orchids from the US?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[lambelkip]

both CITES and phytosanitary certificates are required. last time I checked, the application cost for a phytosanitary certificate was $60, which means it's really not practical to send small numbers of plants overseas. I have not checked into the cost of CITES certificates.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Live plants out of flask are pretty expensive and such a royal pain to deal with as far as obtaining paperwork and permits to ship from one country to another are concerned.

Both CITES and phytosanitary papers are needed. There may also be permits from either country involved.

It's better to send seeds, or young plants in flask. No paperwork. No hassles. Only deal with the price of packing and shipping.

I sent a flask of orchid seedlings to Hungary without paperwork or permits, no problems.

[Marissa]

Thank you both for the quick response. Reason I asked was, there is somebody from UK who is interested in buying a cymbidium from me and according to her, that there is no paperwork needed as long as the plant is ship bare root and the name of the plant is written outside the box and in turn UK customs will charge her the shipping cost.

She said that she had purchased orchids/plants outside UK following the above process.

I think my next question is, what are the chances of me getting in trouble or will USPS even let me ship the plant?

I need the money but I don't want it to end up costing me.

Thanks again,

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Check your Inbox, please.

[lambelkip]

people in the UK can only purchase plants without certificates if they come from inside the European Union.
The USPS will probably ship them for you, but I wouldn't count on them getting through customs on the other side.

[Triffid]

You may also want to check out this site.

HM Revenue & Customs: Banned or restricted goods

Should be some more direct contact details available should you have a query about importing plants/seeds/flasks.
and relevant legal requirements.

Apparently it may also easier to obtain a plant from the USA to the UK, through a UK Nursery which could be able to acquire the plant for you as they may be dealing with this sort of Paper Work on a regular basis. (It's apparently to do with conservation, to make sure it's not Black Market so to speak)

Haven't looked to buy outside the UK/Europe myself yet. I looked into it a bit and shuddered.

[Marissa]

Thank you all for the response. I feel educated, I know there are a lot of discussions in the forum about importing/exporting plants but I haven't been playing attention until now.