Quote:
Originally Posted by LDiane
Since January, 2002, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine (APHIS-PPQ), of the USDA, has required a phytosanitary certificate for all imported seed, including the small packets of seed from foreign seed exchanges and private seed houses. Four years of effort produced a new Permit, for Small Lots of Seed, that allows the importation of these small packets of seeds without a phyto.
U.S. importers who plan to purchase seed from any groups or individuals based outside the United States should obtain this new permit. It is free, good for three years and multiple uses, and the application is available online. Best of all, it does not require that the exporter provide an expensive, time-consuming phyto.
For information about getting the permit: https://www.nargs.org/small-lots-seed
This program does not always work well. I tried mailing seeds to a Washington state inspection station, following all regulations, and the inspector somehow lost the enclosed mailing label required to mail the seeds on to the person who had requested them. I finally succeeded by NOT following instructions. I printed the recipient's address on the envelope, under the big label with the inspection station's address, so that when the inspector ripped that label off, there was the next address.
When this procedure first went into effect, seeds sent to the inspection station in Jamaica, New York, sometimes got sent to Jamaica. |
Thanks for reposting the above since it's been posted before but there are now many many newer members , actually hundreds in just the last month or so who haven't heard about it.
Previously it was posted b/c there are many SSE members here and the same as what you posted is in the front part of the annul SSE yearbook
and I just looked at my 2016 SSE Yearbook and it's still there.
It starts out by saying that a phyto must accompany any seeds coming into the US and the price of one certificate is $50, and of course that applies to the many SSE members who are not US members.
It goes on to say that price is prohibitive for small scale growers,and that would be SSE members and those here at Tville as well.
An important point that came out in prervious discussions about this is that there are very few places in Europe,etc,where seeds can be tested to obtain a phytocertificate, and that meant VERY few from those responding from those areas.
It the goes into the USDA free small lots of seed permit which allows for 50 seedsof 50 different varieties per shipment and is good for three years.
Then it goes into how to apply for the permit as you did above, giving links,etc.
So this is all about folks not in the US sending seeds to the US,not US folks sending seed elsewhere.
Now the blurb is known to all SSE members and has been for many years and by now I think many others in other countries but can't be sure of this.
Tania and Andrey and many Canadian members and others from other countries and I could go on and on,have never sent seeds with permits.
I have seeds sent from Denmark, Sweden, France,Germany, Belgium, Poland,The Czech Republic,Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Romania, Spain and I know I'm forgetting some places,and not one of them uses phyto certificates.
What's my point?As others here have posted,for folks sending from other countries to the US,there have rarely been any confiscations of seeds at all, so the small lot permit has essentially been ignored. And despite the concern for importation of noxious weeds,etc.,which was the reason that the USDA set up the program rarely has that happened from feedback.
When so many were coming from Europe,etc.,as immigrants many brought along their seeds,and yes,that's how tumbleweed and some other so called noxious weeds got imported,that was back from maybe the late 1800 hundreds to even today. Ah,almost forgot Thistle,which was imported and kidzu and other examples as well.
Did I hesitate when I received seed from more recent immigrants?I did not and here are two examples, the first is Sandul Moldovan and the second is Gogosha and I could have listed many many more.
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sandul_Moldovan
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Gogosha
So LDiane,I am glad that you reposted this b'c there are several threads here already about it with vigorous discussions,but I don't think most realize it's only for folks outside the US and as I said above,it's being essentially ignored.
Carolyn