exporting bulbs
Diane Whitehead (Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:22:57 PST)

Diana Chapman wrote:
your agent will check to see if the country you are going to has
any special
requirements or restrictions.

You have to allow more time for the checking than you would expect.
Every plant needs to be looked up to see if it is on CITES, and then
the requirements of the country to which you are taking the plants
need to be checked.

Once when I was getting an inspection done, the server was down so
the inspectors couldn't access their usual website and were using a
backup CD that did not seem to have complete information. I told them
what they needed to write, but they said it wasn't on the CD, so they
wouldn't. The phyto was rejected at the border, and I had to wait
while a new one was faxed.

Sometimes there need to be discussions with other inspectors in the
office if the receiving country's requirements seem ambiguous, and I
have been part of a conference call to inspectors in Canada.

Once, at a Winter Study Weekend, the phytos were not done correctly
(each page had not been initialled by the inspector) and it took a
full day (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) with faxes and phone calls between Salem
and Canada before I finally had a clearance number and could drive home.

If you are flying, I strongly urge you to get the inspection done
before you go to the airport.