To Canadians/Americans, should I expect issues sending seeds as gift from Canada to US?

[Skafidr]

Hi all!

As the title suggests, I'm thinking about trading seeds with someone from the US (I'm in Canada). So I don't expect any money in return for seeds.

I suppose I'll just put the seeds in a plastic bag and package them like Northwood Seeds does, then put the envelope in the mail.

Is this as simple as that? Do I need somehow to mention that the contents are tobacco seeds? Or a gift?

Thanks!

 

[deluxestogie]

That is a tough question to answer these days.

In the past, when I mailed tobacco seed to individuals in nations across the world, I encountered no difficulty from placing a customs label on the package, indicating the contents to be "clean seeds of Nicotiana spp.", a gift, and a realistically low value. The indicated seed count needed to be fewer than 1000 seeds, by postal regulations, in order to not require an official Sanitary certificate. All of my statements were entirely true.

I have not given this a try in the past 8 years or so.

Bob

 

[plantdude]

I don't know about sending things to the US. Everything my daughter and I sent to Canada over the last 4 years years for her business that was plant based got rejected by Canada (a few items which made absolutely no sense since they don't present a threat to Canadian agriculture in any way) and was sent back - usually destroyed and months latter. Your customs agents suck up there by the way - nothing against the people of course, even if you guys did let it get to that point - still time for change on plenty of issues up there, right
Technically America requires a phytosanitary certificate for plants and seed. A few bucks in postage and cheap seed though might be worth the try to see if our customs agents also suck as much - things still need changing here as well. At worst you're out postage, but it's the thought that counts right? Tobacco seed is not illegal in the US, at worst it doesn't get delivered.

 

[Skafidr]

I don't know about sending things to the US. Everything my daughter and I sent to Canada over the last 4 years years for her business that was plant based got rejected by Canada (a few items which made absolutely no sense since they don't present a threat to Canadian agriculture in any way) and was sent back - usually destroyed and months latter. Your customs agents suck up there by the way - nothing against the people of course, even if you guys did let it get to that point - still time for change on plenty of issues up there, right
Technically America requires a phytosanitary certificate for plants and seed. A few bucks in postage and cheap seed though might be worth the try to see if our customs agents also suck as much - things still need changing here as well. At worst you're out postage, but it's the thought that counts right? Tobacco seed is not illegal in the US, at worst it doesn't get delivered.

Thanks for the info. I can't speak for the quality of both countries' agencies as I do not do business often with them.

That said, I bought and received seeds from Northwood last year, no issues. Maybe they have a better pipeline for providing phytosanitary certificates, or they're known to CBSA to be 'clean'.

We'll see how it goes. Now with the duties in place it seems like an additional step is require to pre-pay for them even before I put the letter in the mail.

 

[plantdude]

My understanding is Northwood seeds is up to date on it's phytosanitary certificates for international shipping. Given the recent announcements about FTT no longer supporting cigar tobacco and other events unfolding in the world I would suggest people start stocking up on seeds and learning to grow their own.
Help each other where possible. Seed sources are a valuable commodity for everyone. How and where a tobacco plant is grown has an impact, but the underlying genetics of irreplaceable seed is huge.

 

[StoneCarver]

I think enforcement is spotty. Last year I tried ordering some cactus seeds from a nursery in Europe. Customs somehow figured out what was in the envelope and confiscated it. There were far less than 1000 seeds in the envelope. I was rather upset because most of those seeds were for endangered and rare cacti. Most of the time I don't have any problems. Its a gamble and that's all I can say at this time without getting political.