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USDA Small Lots of Seed Permit

midwestchilehead

midwestchilehead

eXtreme
I just had a seed order confiscated by customs. It is the first time that has happened to me. It was coming from Holland, so maybe that was part of the problem. In any event, it made me realize that nine years ago I started to get a USDA Small Lots of Seed permit to allow importation, but I never finished the process. Do any of you have such a permit? What has been your experience with the permit?
 
midwestchilehead said:
I just had a seed order confiscated by customs. It is the first time that has happened to me. It was coming from Holland, so maybe that was part of the problem. In any event, it made me realize that nine years ago I started to get a USDA Small Lots of Seed permit to allow importation, but I never finished the process. Do any of you have such a permit? What has been your experience with the permit?
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I have it, but I don't remember all of the process. I did have to amend mine, and that was a pain, to add additional countries. What I learned was you should put the ones you know you'll order from, but then add a catch-all of All admissible countries. For seeds to be imported you can just put Capsicum spp. if you're just ordering pepper seeds.
 
Have one...applied on line then went to a nearby USDA to  show my ID.I used it for seeds from Peter @ Semillas mostly.
Never a problem...Seeds arrived safely with a copy of permit attached.
 
APHIS Plant Health Programs
Plant Protection Quarantine
877-770-5990
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
United States Department of Agriculture
https://epermits. aphis.usda.gov.
 
 
FWIW, I started to obsess over this when I was considering a purchase from Semillas for the first time. Ultimately, I realized that my order was pretty modest, so I skipped it. That first order, and subsequent orders, came thru without any hassles, and I never bothered to get the permit.

So, i'm thinking is no big deal. Of course, I'll also probably cry like a baby the first time I place an order and it does confiscated...
 
there has to be more underlining reasons why they don't allow it, but pathogens and diseases for sure can be one of those reasons..
however, my grand father frequently went to Puerto Rico every winter and came back in the spring with fruit. they would not allow him to travel with seeds inside the fruit. (don't remember the name of the fruit, its in Spanish).
 
now why on earth would they not allow you to bring the seeds into the country considering that anyone from the US can travel to and from at any time without a passport. its US territory after all.. who knows, maybe some politics involved like the US not wanting people to grow certain crops here locally for un-taxed profit lol... the fruit is native to PR only and grows in no other place that i'm aware of, but i am sure it will grow in far south FL like Miami where temps rarely dip below 60.
 
edit: found the name of it, it's called guanábana, Soursop in english apparently.
 
I've never heard of a pepper plant spreading a disease that ever impacted anything other than pepper plants.

It sounds on par with "You can't grow that African fruit HERE! We'll all get Ebola or AIDS or something!"
 
Ruid said:
I've never heard of a pepper plant spreading a disease that ever impacted anything other than pepper plants.

It sounds on par with "You can't grow that African fruit HERE! We'll all get Ebola or AIDS or something!"
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Thats my point. Its more serious for citrus fruits which is a huge economic factor, and for bananas since they are all clones of each other. We dont want any diseased crops that hit commercial use.
 
99% of our shipments to US run without permit and nearly all have received.
We know about only one shipment in 2018 that has been confiscated.
 
But we declare the content as "small lots of seeds, Capsicum ssp, origin: Spain and we declare a value.
 
If there are larger orders, we always inform our customers that it´s better to apply for a permit.
 
midwestchilehead said:
I just had a seed order confiscated by customs. It is the first time that has happened to me. It was coming from Holland, so maybe that was part of the problem. In any event, it made me realize that nine years ago I started to get a USDA Small Lots of Seed permit to allow importation, but I never finished the process. Do any of you have such a permit? What has been your experience with the permit?
Click to expand...
 
I have had seeds on order from Semillas for over a month now.  I'm beginning to think that customs may have confiscated mine.  I did contact Semillas and they said if they were confiscated that I would receive a letter from them (customs) but I haven't received one yet.  I guess there's still hope. 
I'm curious if you received a letter?
 
semillas said:
99% of our shipments to US run without permit and nearly all have received.
We know about only one shipment in 2018 that has been confiscated.
 
But we declare the content as "small lots of seeds, Capsicum ssp, origin: Spain and we declare a value.
 
If there are larger orders, we always inform our customers that it´s better to apply for a permit.
Click to expand...
 
So far it appears that I am in the 1% category.
 
Tybo said:
 
I have had seeds on order from Semillas for over a month now.  I'm beginning to think that customs may have confiscated mine.  I did contact Semillas and they said if they were confiscated that I would receive a letter from them (customs) but I haven't received one yet.  I guess there's still hope. 
I'm curious if you received a letter?
 
 
So far it appears that I am in the 1% category.
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Hey Tybo.  I had ordered from SLP prior to your post in the Lemon Jalapeno thread and I just got mine yesterday.  This was the slowest shipment I ever had with SLP at exactly two weeks, but still nothing like your month.  They arrived marked as usual:
 
Small lots of seeds
Capsicum species
Origin Spain
 
Sorry to hear you're waiting so long, but this is far from typical in my experience.  I hope it works out for you quickly!  Unfortunately, US Customs does what US Customs want.  And on their own timeline.
 
Hey, glad to hear you got your order.  Mine may come after all.  I remember you saying it rarely took much more than a week.  
 
I'd still like to know if Midwestchilehead actually received a letter from customs.
 
Thanks for the reply!
 
 
Ordered a load of pube seeds from SLP (no USDA permit). Received them in 8 days. Hopefully yours will show up soon..
 
Yes, I did get a letter (more like a fill-in-the-blank form). It came in the seed envelope, but it took a long time to get to me (about six weeks after I ordered. If I run across the letter I will scan it and post it.
 
Tybo said:
Hey, glad to hear you got your order.  Mine may come after all.  I remember you saying it rarely took much more than a week.  
 
I'd still like to know if Midwestchilehead actually received a letter from customs.
 
Thanks for the reply!
 
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midwestchilehead said:
Yes, I did get a letter (more like a fill-in-the-blank form). It came in the seed envelope, but it took a long time to get to me (about six weeks after I ordered. If I run across the letter I will scan it and post it.
 
 
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Ok, thanks for the reply.
 
Crazy Monkey said:
Ordered a load of pube seeds from SLP (no USDA permit). Received them in 8 days. Hopefully yours will show up soon..
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8 days!  I'm jealous.  I looked into getting the permit but haven't decided to go through with it or not.
 
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