A Plant Importer's story
clayton3120 clayton3120 (Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:24:36 PST)

William,
Congrats on reading through the lines, and understanding a bit of the
situation. For those who wish to beat the system, it is easy to do.
Sadly, inspectors are no match for an educated plants person. If you
REALLY wanted to pass something through, you could. If an importer is
concerned about the possibility of passing along pests and diseases, you
go through the proper channels of inspection, and. hopefully the inspectors
will truly examine what they need to. Is the Chrysanthemum I'm importing
being checked for white rust or has it been passed by for a slight aphis
infestation? etc. etc etc. Are leaves and roots of so and so being looked
at under microscope for harmful bacteria or was it given the once over,
naked eye, and placed back in the box with a seal of approval.
Importers need to have a conscience about the possibilities they could be
introducing by importing plants. That why I suggest , perhaps a
certification for importation.
I've spoken to plant inspectors at the Port inspection station, and I
was rather frightened at the ineptness of their plant knowledge, or even
perhaps at what they were looking for. I"m not surprised at all that the
situation isn't worse than it is.
R.K.