IMPORTING PLANTS FROM ASIA

[plant57va]

Can someone please help me out with this situation...
I have a LFS owner who wants to bring in some aroids and aquatics from Indonesia...
He has friended a fellow over there that has a farm and is raising anubias, crypts and buce to name a few...
The fellow over there has phyto certtificates and such but
the LFS owner here needs to have the necessary paperwork
so
who /where do we go to get the necessary paperwork started so that he has the proper forms to expedite the process...

I had a usda permit many many years ago, when i was bringing in orchids from other countries, but i am sure that has expired and
i do not know what forms/or papers are needed for this process....
I would appreciate the help....
thanks
david

[Linus_Cello]

I’ve never done this and only know about this from an orchid context, but I heard a presentation recently that Seattle (where stuff from Asia may come through) is one of the better ports to import through as Miami and NY fumigate too much which leads to greater losses of plants.

[plant57va]

thanks Linus
I had an import permit for my orchids many many years ago, and i do not know if the permit still exists...
hadn't used it since the late ninetys early 2000's
I am going to call usda tomorrow and see where it gets me.....
thanks
david

[halak]

I don't know what permit is needed to receive the plants, but in 2016 or 2017, U.S. customs added an extra step to do on the importer's side; certain labels (USDA Green & Yellow 508 labels) need to be requested before the plants are shipped to the U.S., and they need to be attached to the boxes. Also, if the shipment gets stuck at the U.S. customs, try calling the U.S. customs at the airport where the plants are. I did that once and was successful, but I do think that I just happened to talk to a friendly officer (maybe the foreign accent helped : )). That was the Memphis airport. I can send you the correspondence to your email if you would like.

[krisw]

This doesn't help with the import license issue, but do know that very few places that claim to be farming Buce are actually doing so. Most are holding areas for wild collected plants. Maybe you're getting lucky, but I've heard that story way too many times. The only truly reliable way to ensure the Buce you're getting are farmed is if in tissue culture. And, if you do order, if plants come in mats that aren't actually attached to any medium, that's another good indicator that they're wild collected.

[DonkeyFish]

We have a resource in USDA!! Luis Fell was working with me at one point when I was looking into being an importer. He's a guy, and he's got a guy for just this thing.