need info on importing seeds from usa to uk

ajijoe

16 years ago

can anyone help

im from the US and have a fellow from the UK that wants some seeds from me, is it legal??

what must i do to meet custom criteria?? if any

please let me know

thanks your friend Joe

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Comments (2)

crazylady
16 years ago
If it's small quantities of ordinary garden seeds, there's no problem. You don't need any Certificates or Permits as you do to send seeds to the US. Just send your seeds and write something like 'Garden Flower Seeds - no commercial value' on the envelope. This is what several international gardening societies tell their members to do.

You can always e-mail DEFRA to check if you want to make sure what you want to send here is legal.
john_yeoman
16 years ago
I've had no problems with UK customs or otherwise in receiving quantities of heirloom seeds in the UK from US friends. Indeed, there are no significant problems with posting garden seeds throughout the EC.

Problems arise, as you know, when mailing seeds into the US (plus Australia and several other nations). The phytosanitation laws have been sharply enforced in the US since around 2006. This is not so much to keep out disease, which is rarely found on garden seeds properly prepared, but to block the importation of invasive weeds.

Nor does it help to smuggle seeds into the US in hollowed out copies of Sherlock Holmes. US Customs have now become wise to this. It is more effective, I find, to slip them between the pages of Edgar Allen Poe's The Purloined Letter :)
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need info on importing seeds from usa to uk

Comments (2)

crazylady

john_yeoman

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