Question
Hi Sarracenia Northwest,

Over the winter break, I will be visiting my family in Taiwan. I was wondering, if I were to get any carnivorous plants or seeds there, is there any way to import them into Japan and then back into the U.S.? Coming back, I take one plane from Taiwan to Japan, then take another from Japan into the U.S.

Thanks,
Steven  

Answer
Hi Steven,

The best advice I can give you on this is to find a nursery/grower in Taiwan that does export.  They will be very familiar with the paperwork needed to send plants to the U.S.

Now, let me try and talk you out of this.  It's complicated just to bring plants back from Hawaii, a U.S. state, to the U.S. mainland.  You are trying to bring live plants back on a plane through two countries.  The U.S. has strict import regulations, and I can guess that Japan is even worse.  It probably can be done, but the paperwork is very expensive and time consuming.  At the minimum you would need a USDA general permit, USDA import permit, the proper phytosanitary inspection back in Taiwan needed to satisfy both the U.S. and Japan, and documentation from U.S. Fish and Wildlife on the CITIES classification of your plants.

If a dealer in Taiwan could ship plants to you that is usually less complicated since they may have some of that paperwork already in place.  Seed tend to be much simpler and you should be able to do that without much hassle.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com