iisfaq Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 Hi all I would like to share an expeience I had in December 2007. I went to the US for work and I bought a number of products from www.petsmart.com especially FISH medications that you can not buy in NZ. I boughts lots of flake food - Large tin of Spirulina fake from Tetra, 160 Gram - US price approx $9.99 USD isn't that about $14 NZD - around $40-$50 Ok I am not whingeing about the price here but there is a lot of markup when it hits NZ shores but we are used to being ripped off for everything! Apparently you can only import 500 grams of fish food (from memory) any more and they can throw it out - customs that is! But that was not the problem. I purchased some products from the above web site - www.petsmart.com * Tank Buddies Parasite Clear from Jungle Labs * Ick Clear from Tank Buddies * Aquarium Pharmaceuticals PimaFix * Jungle Labs Hole N Head Guard Now I declared everything to customs who probably thought what the hell have we got here. 6 Tubes of fish flake, medication, and heaps of other stuff. Now I know I took the risk on bringing them back, but I did look up online at the NZ customs and immigration sites about the products. They said that all of my products from Jungle labs and the Pima Fix were out - out as in the bin. I could pay about $80 per item to have them reviewed- yea right like I would do that for a product that cost $20 USD. Now the problem is this: The reason they threw them out was that the product did not show a NZ code on the label - now why would they - they were for sale in USA. I accepted the fact that my money and medication is now down the drain but tonight I looked at some products. OK, on a previous trip (2005) I imported some products not really medication but I did import API stress coat and MELAFIX. Now this trip (Dec 2007) they threw out the PIMAFIX and the MELAFIX becuase they did not have a NZ Code on them and all of the Jungle Labs products. Today I had to go to Animates and buy some Stress Coat - I needed it since I am transferring my fish between rooms - some would say I do not need it, but since I have stressed them to hell I decided to buy some more. I paid $26 from Animates for 450 ML. Now I looked at the labels on the bottles - the one I imported in 2005 and the one 2008 I bought from Animates. NO DIFFERENCE - NO NZ CODE on the Animates version. So I looked at the MELAFIX and also no NZ CODEs on it. NZ CUSTOMS SUCK- since their poor database does not include a product you must throw it out. They decided since their web site did not say I was allowed the product that they would throw it all in the bin. Did you also know you can not find anything that says you are NOT allowed to import it, I did this while I was in the USA Their web site is useless - do a search and all you will find is references to not being able to use some medications (that I was not allowed) on live animals that will later be exported for sale for humans to eat. I thought I would share this story incase anyone else is deciding to import any medications... chris *bad language edited (and I fixed the spelling and added a few capitals where required - I couldn't help it :lol: ) - Caryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 Has it occurred to you that the legal requirements have changed between your two trips? I know that you cannot import any fish if it is not on their list so would expect everything else to be the same. Hopefully your tale will help anyone who is thinking of trying to bring fish medications into NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 One of the biggest jobs for border control is preventing the importation of illegal drugs. If it is not on the approved list it is illegal ( even if it is a cure for fish disease rather than "P." ) The rubbish I get with my Emails would indicate that there are a number of lovely Russian women out there (probably a fat 65 year old Nigerian male in fact) and a lot of men wanting drugs to assist them with that relationship. Many of the Asian countries do not have the controls on fish cures (particularly antibiotics) that should be there so their use in those area can be indiscriminate. This creates resistance and makes fish cures more difficult here. The biggest worry is the resistance created in human disease. I am therefore in favour of the importation of legal drugs only. We love to talk about the free market and avoiding control by "Nanny State" and so we should all be happy about what results from that---high prices. Long live the free market place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iisfaq Posted February 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 *bad language edited (and I fixed the spelling and added a few capitals where required - I couldn't help it :lol: ) - Caryl Thanks for that... Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iisfaq Posted February 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 I know that you cannot import any fish if it is not on their list so would expect everything else to be the same. Hopefully your tale will help anyone who is thinking of trying to bring fish medications into NZ Does anyone know where to find "the list"? I would love to know how to know what is on the ALLOW list. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 Alan hit it on the head I use to import Racing pigeons and tonics from Australia. Anything that states that it is for use with animals is banned unless it has already been approve for use in NZ. This is to protect the NZ market from products that dont do what they say and from products that may/can contain things that can harm the NZ live stock and fauna. I agree with this as quite simply, if a tonic contains a bacteria that is good for one spiece it may be harmfull to something native. There is/was an agreement that goods OKed for use in Ozz would be accepted here but Im not sure if that is still the case as Newcastles Desease is in Ozz but not here so the MAF people were correctly a bit scared of this. The case use to be that anything sold here could be brought in in limited amounts for personal use. Some of the drugs that we used here for pigeons were useless over seas as the diseases had mutated just as the "cures" that they had in Europe were to treat the mutated disorder. I would expect that it would also be similar with fish. As I said, I use to do all this over 10 years ago so things will be out of date now but the direction will be the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 The list link was posted in a recent thread here somewhere, just trying to remember where :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 Ta dah!! http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/files/bi ... 364-ft.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jezza Posted February 18, 2008 Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 Hello iisfaq, I used to work for NZ Customs, in fact I used to work at the Auckland International Mail Centre (where if you sent your package from overseas I'm assuming it was stopped)... I was the firearms officer there so I only had a little bit to do with stopping of dutiable and uncustomed goods, I dealt more with the prohibited and forfeit goods, however... From talking with the other officers there and being in the same office, with the same bosses I can tell you one thing, NZ Customs there is a JOKE..! Thats why I left for another agency, I couldn't take it anymore... Heres how a typical package stop seemed to work there... Firstly most officers wouldn't stop a package with a declared value of under $400 dollars (the cutoff for a duty collection) unless they thought the items inside were prohibited (good officers unless they thought it was something serious or drugs), most would pick up something declared as fish food (or similar) off the x-ray belt and show the MAF officer (both are side by side), if they weren't interested, I wasn't interested... If it was under $400 and an officer stopped it and detained it under Customs legislation they were either; new or a jerk... Then generally officers would come back into the office and look each other and say, "I think I should stop this what am I doing it under", then they would; ask other officers who had no clue, ask older officer who didn't care or would make something up and then STICK TO IT NO MATTER WHAT..! You're right about the computer system, they were the first to move to a complete computer system in the early 90's..! And haven't improved it since..! Only adding more and more information to a crappy system, it is not user friendly (at all) and is practically useless for officers... My advice when importing something: read the legislation, e-mail a customer service person from Customs (keeping the e-mail), when/if its stopped talk to the officer, if they are playing games ask for their Cheif Customs Officer's e-mail address, e-mail through the research you did, the e-mail from the customer service officer and hope they think you're not worth the headache... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Cusmod, bleah... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jezza Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Thats the one..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 I thought I would share this story incase anyone else is deciding to import any medications... chris You cant import fish medicine unless it has a permit. Even if the product is available in nz, the importer has paid a lot of money to get melfix approved so it should be purchased in nz. That is why we dont get many fish medicines in nz as it cost to much to get it approved. Its a major problem with small animal medicines. Importing bacteria products is also a major problem, only one or two are allowed in as they have permits, Ok I am not whingeing about the price here but there is a lot of markup when it hits NZ shores but we are used to being ripped off for everything! You are not getting ripped off. that is the price of doing business. fish shops dont make much profit at the end of the day and many go bust because they to listen to hobbyist and try to do things cheap. Our market is very small so we dont have the high turn over to drop margins like overseas, plus importers have to deal with all red tape from MAF. which cost money. Things cost much because of the government(maf/erma) who put things in place so they can make a killing, and we cant go anywhere else to get things approved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 well said Reef People dont seem to realise what it costs for compliancy At the moment in my trade there are people importing saftey glass from overseas and finding that NZ certifaction is needed then asking me to put my name to it.. Nup, Dosnt work that way, I need to feed my family and I earn my wage by selling and installing glass not by signing off some imported stuff that my not conform. WHERE POSSIBLE SUPPORT THE LOCAL STORES AS IF WE DONT, THEY WONT BE HERE IN THE FUTURE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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