For a big order is shipping by cargo worth it ?

We can ship to your airport by cargo if the customs there can accept perishable goods. Not all airports carry phytosanitary services.
In addition to the cost charged by the airline, charges at your airport must be added : taxes, agent, delivery to your nursery etc..
From a real situation in 2012, for a shipment to Europe of 200 kg, with a plant value of 2150 eur ( from our wholesale list, such as 1075 rooted Hoya x 2 eur = 2150 eur ) , the total transport cost from our site to the destination airport is around 1050 eur; if you add a 6.5% import tax in your country and a VAT at 19.6%: ( 2150 + 1050 ) x 1.065 x 1.196 = 4018 eur
The remaining charge will be the transport from your airport to your place, this can be around 100 eur. Hence the total cost, plants and transport, will be 4118 eur; based on a wholesale plant price of 2150 : the ratio is about 1.92 = 4118/ 2150

You may also have the plants shipped to your airport and dispatched by your agent directly to your customers. Click on this link to know more :
plants to your airport and dispatched by your agent

Please note that one kg is what we all know on scales - the Gross Weight - but for the airline industry the weight is also a volume divided by 6000 ( and sometimes noted Vol Wt , or volume - weight ). The airline willl always charge the weight on a minimum Vol Wt.

This is how it works on an example :we use cartons of 50 x 100 x 25 cm. We divide by 6000 this volume and find 20.8 , this is the Vol Wt. If the content ( Gross Weight, weight on scales ) is only 18 kg, anyway the airline company will charge on a weight of 20.8 kg; but if this content is 25 kg the company will charge on this weight of 25 kg

Also usually airlines charge on a minimum weight of 45 kg.For instance we ship 2 cartons of Vol Wt 20.8 each, total Vol Wt is 20.8 x 2 = about 42 kg. The charge will however apply on 45 kg. Usually a carton of Hoya, Fern or Bromeliad does not exceed its Vol Wt of 20.8 kg.

Considering all costs for contents up to 60 kg, several small postal parcels, by Small Parcel Air or by express parcels : EMS, may be a better option, in particular when the plants occupy a rather high volume but are light. Hoya, Fern and Bromeliad are better candidates for post parcels than the dense Plumeria. Indeed the Thai post, contrary to other courrier ( DHL, Fedex etc - that anyway , in Thailand, do not accept live plants - ) consider the gross weight not the volume for the charge of transport.

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com/

Essential words in the Annex IV understood in diverse manners : consequences

Are the plants below herbaceous ? if they were they should come under the # 45 - 1 of the Annex IV of the EU directive concerning plant protection. In the opinion of the french phytosanitary administration ( but not of its European counterparts ) in May 2012 these plants are herbaceous, hence a phytosanitary certificate that would accompany the shipment would be wrongly issued if it did not refer to the # 45 - 1 ( - and plants would be rejected or blocked until reception of a new certificate issued in the sender's country - )

However in Thailand the phytosanitary services don't deem these plants to be herbaceous as they understand " herbaceous " as defined for instance by Wikipedia :

" A herbaceous plant (in botanical use simply herb) is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground. Herbaceous plants may be annuals, biennials or perennials... "

Obviously none of the plants below are herbaceous according to this common definition ( further, bulbs corns, rhizome and tubers of herbaceous plants are not concerned ). For this reason in May 2012 exporters' requests are denied that reference be made to the # 45 - 1 in the certificate.

In May 2012 the plant trade with France is still affected by a lack of common understanding on basic botanical terms, which incurs losses to businesses of all sizes; lack of access to the legal texts applying by phytosanitary services in charge of the issuance of the certificates, lack of basic communication and coordination with counterparts, administrative layers.

ANNONA SQUAMOSA
ARTABOTRYS HARMANDII
BAUHINIA BLAKEANA
CANANGA ODORATA
CANANGA ODORATA VAR. FRUTICOSUM
CAESALPINIA PULCHERRIMA
CYRTOSTACHYS LAKKA
DELONIX REGIA
DESMOS CHINENSIS
GARDENIA TUBIFERA
HOYA spp
JACARANDA OBTUSIFOLIA
JATROPHA PODAGRICA
KOPSIA FRUCTICOSA
MALPIGHIA GLABRA
MURRAYA KOENIGII
PIPER NIGRUM
QUISQUALIS INDICA
STRONGYLODON MACROBOTRYS
SYNSEPALUM DULCIFICUM
TACCA CHANTRIERI

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com/

Shipment that was illegal or beyond normal risk

Question : why do you say that plants sent wholesale are not refunded or replaced whatever the cause if the shipment was illegal or the risk was too high ?

Answer : below is the excerpt of Aleyagarden's conditions of sale on this matter. To illustrate our point let us see some situations of control by phytosanitary agents in an importing country : for instance they may have doubts about the age of the plants, that should legally be under two years; as they cannot prove the age, or if they could they would not do it ( because of the added cost , added work etc ) they investigate more thoroughly the plants until they find a pest : acarid, spider, traces of insect etc - ( it is worthy to note that the stocking places or the laboratories where the plants are examined may themselves harbour such populations ! ) The reason for rejection of the plants is then found but the cause was a doubt about the age of the plant.
An other cause of interception may be for instance a doubt in relation to the name of the plant, here again the phytosanitary service would not try to prove that the name is wrong and they would instead perform an analysis until a cause beyond doubt is found for the interception.

Phytosanitary controls may sustain state policies : Australia can close its border to plant and fruit imports just by finding causes of interceptions during controls.

Other causes may pertain to the dormancy of the plant ( a plant can be said dormant with one source of information although it is not for an other source ) , the way it was defoliated .. More often than we think, work relationship between phytosanitary agents and importers can be poisoned by vexations and .. retaliation. As it is always possible to find causes of interceptions on all plants, whether or not they were thoroughly treated and cleaned, importer and exporter must be aware of the risk and agree in advance on the burden of the liability.

excerpt of Aleyagarden's conditions of sale
" We replace or refund the plants only if the cause of destruction or return is mentioned in an official certificate and if this cause is not related to importers' misinformation regarding plant import rules or does not coincide with importers'indications or absence of them that made the shipment illegal or subject to an abnormal phytosanitary risk : whatever the cause of interception in such situations we do not replace the plants.We request whenever possible a copy of the importer's permit. "

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com/