APHIS import renewal versus actual Seed import

Bulbists,
I'm sorry to hear about these mishaps(het hem) with seed importation. I
thought my case was a fluke, but now I hear that it wasn't just me. I
have a small seed lot import permit as well as a plant import permit from
the countries I specified on the application. I use the mailing labels ,
and always send a copy of my permit to the seed vendor. Recently I
ordered seed from someone in England, and received a call from the APHIS
office in Seattle, stating that my seed was being held because the permit
had expired , and was the wrong permit. After going online to check, I
saw that my permit expired in 2015. I called USDA in Washington DC to try
to iron things out, and about 2 hours of waiting on the phone, being
transferred to this office, that office, I was instructed to re-apply for
the permits. OK, I went online, with much rigamurrow, I completed the
application. The next day, the government was shut down. I supposed
had 10 days to re-apply before the seed would be destroyed. Today I get
an email from APHIS saying their is nothing they can do. Sadly, I
learned that trying to do the Right thing, is the Wrong thing to do, when
you're dealing with government agencies. I hope the best for the rest of
you who import seed, and/ or plants.
RickK

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 2:17 PM, James Waddick <jwaddick@kc.rr.com> wrote:

Dear Diane,

On Nov 7, 2013, at 2:14 PM, Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>
wrote:

In September I sent seeds to a club based in the U.S. I have just

received the seeds back. They passed inspection in Seattle,

but it looks as though the mailing label to send the seeds onward was

lost.

Renewing the permit is one thing, actual import is yet another.
USDA works in mysterious ways. As co-chair of an international seed
exchange we get seed from over a dozen different countries and the
specifics are unreal. For a long while, seeds were inspected only at the
APHIS station in Jamaica NY near JFK Int. Airport. The import labels
clearly said Jamaica NY. Trouble is many seeds went to Jamaica - the
country, first. The Jamaican Postal Service made up rubber stamps that read
soothing like ‘Sent to Jamaica by Mistake’. Needless to say this caused
delays.

And at one time they must have piled up seed imports until they
got around to them. Seeds would take 2 days to get to NY from almost
anywhere in the world and sit in the Inspection station for months. The
worst one I recall sat in NY for 5 months, passed inspection and was
promptly shipped back to the sender in France. 3 days later the original
sender readdressed the packet to me and it was received without further
inspection.

We had many delays not always the fault of the sender or
recipient. I have had a few phone calls from USDA asking about seeds. My
favorite was in regard to Iris seeds sent from Hungary. There were 20
packets all labelled and fairly common seed exchange materials, but one was
simply labelled "Iris sp.”. The inspector was concerned that this might
seeds of a wild collected, endangered species prohibited from import such
as Iris lacustris ( native to the northern Great Lakes). I was able to
convince the inspector that this particular donor often sent Spuria Irises
and this was simply an abbreviation for Iris spuria. The seed passed. It
seems highly unlikely that a grower in Hungary would be sending wild
collected Iris lactrustris.

Of course there are even more problems with donors (Dell must have
some stories) I won’t go into. Mostly a thankless job.

Best wishes and Diane I hope your returned seeds were not
headed to SIGNA. If so let me know and I’ll work with you. Best
Jim

James Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd
Kansas City, MO 64152-2711
USA
Phone 816-746-1949

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