nabanga
Kava Enthusiast
I thought it might be useful to start a register of experiences of getting kava delivered to various countries. Theres been a few threads on delivery to UK, canada, australia, NZ in the past but having everyones experiences all in one place on importing, customs, import tax, clearance problems, trying to describe kava to authorities, lengthy stays in tiny dark rat infested concrete cells etc might be useful for future reference to those of us who carry a few bricks in our suitcases or order into non-kava countries.
For myself, I often move between the Pacific (Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa) and SE Asian countries and have had mostly good experiences of importing kava. So to get the ball rolling:
Laos: No problems at all either through regular mail or DHL. No duty to pay if you go to collect between 11am-2pm when all the customs guys go to lunch. I've imported about 100kg over 14 years.
Cambodia: Similar to Laos - no tax or duty, delivered direct to you by DHL etc. I've imported about 20kg over the last 5 years
Vietnam: Possible but expensive and lots of hoops to jump through. You must use DHL or similar or it will dissappear into the black hole that is Vietnam Post. You pay 40% ("tea" rate) import tax on kava cost plus freight cost then 10% of the grand total on top as GST. So all in all about 55% extra on top of what the kava cost you. Before this there are many questions to answer - every possible detail on the product. Make sure it is packaged properly with a brand name label.
Bringing kava into Vietnam by yourself by plane no problem at all - done many times over the last 10 years.
Thailand - no problems but some people have reported getting taxed. But always straightforward and easy.
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For myself, I often move between the Pacific (Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa) and SE Asian countries and have had mostly good experiences of importing kava. So to get the ball rolling:
Laos: No problems at all either through regular mail or DHL. No duty to pay if you go to collect between 11am-2pm when all the customs guys go to lunch. I've imported about 100kg over 14 years.
Cambodia: Similar to Laos - no tax or duty, delivered direct to you by DHL etc. I've imported about 20kg over the last 5 years
Vietnam: Possible but expensive and lots of hoops to jump through. You must use DHL or similar or it will dissappear into the black hole that is Vietnam Post. You pay 40% ("tea" rate) import tax on kava cost plus freight cost then 10% of the grand total on top as GST. So all in all about 55% extra on top of what the kava cost you. Before this there are many questions to answer - every possible detail on the product. Make sure it is packaged properly with a brand name label.
Bringing kava into Vietnam by yourself by plane no problem at all - done many times over the last 10 years.
Thailand - no problems but some people have reported getting taxed. But always straightforward and easy.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk