The bureaucratic environment of the export of plants

We provide these documents with the shipment : Plant Invoice, Packing List, Phytosanitary Certificate and the Attached Sheets, CITES if needed ( and if you sent us your permit to import plants under the CITES, when this permit is needed before shipping ), the Form A ( which is also normally the Certificate of Origin ), the AWB ( Air Way Bill ). If we had to prepay your transport we will email you after shipping ( that can takes a few days ) the Invoice of Transport, which is the amount on the AWB plus all local charges.

You can see samples of such documents below.

- Question : should we do a contract ?
So far none of our customers or ourselves have used contracts to solve problems that may happen, although some importers require a contract to comply with their customs' rules. We accept only contracts on a single page and of course they must match our conditions of sales on the top of our order form ( our plant list on excel ). Please note that we are not responsible for delays or damage after the plants are loaded on the plane : our prices are " free on board " FOB. However we remain liable if the plants are intercepted by our fault.

- Question : can I use my own database to send you my order ?
We receive orders only on the excel sheet that we sent you as our plant list. On this list you will have entered the quantities. The Thai names in the rightmost column must not be deleted, we need these names. ( you may see them as awkward characters on your screen )

- Question : can the names of my plants match the names in your documents ?
In order to make the many necessary documents , such as the phytosanitary certificate, and decrease the probability of errors from all involved partners, the number of names has to be limited as much as possible and they must be taken from an internet database of the Thai department of agriculture; for instance we will write "HOYA SPP" instead of listing 25 Hoya species.

- Question : can you write the full names of the plants on the labels ?
We will request a fee for this, or you can send us your own labels and we will tie them to the plants, otherwise we use codes of 3 letters. The codes and the corresponding plant names are listed alphabetically on Invoice and Packing list.

- Question : can you make a Certificate of Origin ?
Yes, issuing this certificate ( it is usually the form A ) requires that the plants be sent to the airport about one day in advance.

.................................................... Our Registration Certificate as a Controlled Plant Exporter under the Quarantine Act of the department of Agriculture :



.................................................... Plant Invoice : plant names are selected from a database on the internet the day that we ship : some names from our list have to be changed to match the database.


.................................................... Packing List : very cumbersome when the number of units per species is small. The cut below shows that this document would be almost useless or non feasible under 5 units per plant. The Volume Weight is the volume divided by 6000.


.................................................... Check List by our agent. If a document could not be done before loading on the plane, for instance the Form A, the original will be sent on a flight or by express courier.


.................................................... Phytosanitary Certificate


.................................................... Attached Sheet of the Phytosanitary Certifcate 1 of 5. The additional declaration is requested by the importer, by our agent or is under the decision of the agents of the Thai Dpt. of Agriculture.


.................................................... Attached Sheet of the Phytosanitary Certifcate 2 of 5


.................................................... Attached Sheet of the Phytosanitary Certifcate 3 of 5



.................................................... Form A ( Certificate of Origin )



.................................................... Air Way Bill ( AWB ). The phone number of the consignee must be on it


.................................................... Invoice of Transport : we get it after plants are sent. It includes all charges, Phto. certif., overtime, local charges etc.



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

I will open my plant shop, will lower prices than competitors draw me consumers ?

Do you intend to open your plant shop ? This is probably a good idea, data in your country on ornamental plant and flower activities would certainly show that these sectors have not lost jobs since the rise of the large scale supermarkets, while many other economic activities have constantly reduced employment, losing the added value originating in the past from selling time in small shops. The wide varieties of plants constitute an obstacle to the concentration of sales and the subsequent structural unemployment caused by the large distributors.

However you can be tempted to think that by offering much cheaper prices than your already established competitors, you would attract many clients. This is usually not true and would cause the number of clients to shrink, from the following series of events, that can be tested by observing shops on ebay or any other selling platform :
- nowadays through internet your competitors will immediately get information on your prices and plant size or plant quality, so they will immediately lower their prices to match yours.
- too low retail prices of plants decrease their value both in the minds of the buyers who lose interest in them and as re-seller's revenue.
- with a shrinking interest simultaneously from final consumers and re-sellers in their plants the producers will stop quickly to offer them, and they will be out of the market. Finally all players : consumer, reseller and producer will have lost from an initial drop in retail price.

Are you still skeptical ? follow up for a few months on ebay a new plant shop that starts with very low prices, see how fast their competitors are leaving and see in the appropriate page how many sales they manage to do per month, calculate their revenue ( usually about 50% of the final prices if all fees, production costs and hidden costs are included ). Then after some time of very low sales and useless damage to the market you will observe them rising their prices to the initial market level and competitors coming back; selling too cheap would make you the sole seller for a very short time as you would stop soon to make new consumers and the long term repeat clients would also leave all shops little by little. Ask yourself : if plants that you are fond of were in the market as common as weed wouldn't you as other people drop interest in them ?
Try instead to offer choices that your competitors do not offer yet, something new that buyers will not compare to your competitor's offers.


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

Plants available retail can be added to your wholesale order

Some plants are available retail on aleyagarden.com but they are not yet on our wholesale list / order form. Depending on availability they can however be included in a wholesale order.

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

Assessment of the transport cost : issues and solutions

When a cargo of plants lacks homogeneity because the plants vary greatly in volume, weight and size their transport cost by air is uneasily estimated, especially when the gross weight of the cargo may exceed the volume weight of the boxes.

Gross weight is the one read on scales. The volume weight, ( Vol wt ) is the volume divided by 6000. If the dimensions of a box are 100 x 50 x 25 cm , its Vol wt is about 21 kg ( 100 x 50 x 25 / 6000 = 20.8 ).

This volume weight is the minimum chargeable weight : such box with a gross weight of 15 kg will be charged on 21 kg; and of course if its gross weight is 25 kg it will be charged on 25 kg. ( sea freight is instead always charged on the volume ).

Hence if you intend to import plants to airport from Aleyagarden you will consider the three options below and select one :

1 : you pay your transport after arrival to the airline ( depending on airlines and their contracts with the cargo agents, that option is often not possible )
2 : you transfer an advance of money to Aleyagarden based on an estimate of the transport cost. ( this estimate is made by yourself and Aleyagarden ) Usually the past ratios : plant cost/transport cost are good indicators. Hence there will be after shipping a balance - in THB -, to pay immediately ( with any international currency ) or with the next order.
3 : there is no balance and since Aleyagarden will not pay for your more expensive transport than expected ( heavier boxes ) they will overcharge the estimate of the transport cost when making the proforma. ( a proforma is an invoice received for payment of the goods / services before delivery )

The balance is in THB because invoices of transport are issued and paid in THB and Aleyagarden does not have an account in foreign currency : the $ or euro received are changed in THB as soon as they arrive to Aleyagarden's account.

You may prefer that Aleyagarden owed you money rather than your owing them if you sense that the euro or $ will loose strength against the THB.

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