I have to ship a bunch of boxes to the US - what are my options?

[ThePugAndMe]

Hey, I have a friend who I need to ship all these parcels to

 

He lives in the US. There's nothing strange in the boxes - just snacks (chips, candies etc). I was wondering if anyone has had experience with this. I have 2 problems namely

 

a) Finding somewhere that ships by air and getting a quote

 

b) loading and unloading the boxes (possibly condensing some parcels by combining them into a bigger box)

 

Does anyone have any ideas and judging by the photos a rough cost for how much it'll cost me?

[Maha Sarakham]

That looks like it's going to be some VERY expensive chips!

[ThePugAndMe]

1 minute ago, Maha Sarakham said:

That looks like it's going to be some VERY expensive chips!

what kind of ball park are we looking at?

[saakura]

DHL, Fedex, TNT etc

[ThePugAndMe]

2 minutes ago, saakura said:

DHL, Fedex, TNT etc

oh so not normal post office. I actually meant ballpark in terms of rough estimate $$$.

[tomazbodner]

Just something smaller than one of that boxes, sent to HKG by DHL cost me nearly 5000 baht for about half a kg. That'll be the most expensive chips on the planet by the time it hits US Customs where not only will customs on the chips have to be paid but on shipping as well. I think he's looking at several thousands of dollars in shipping and import duties.

 

Also I thought it's not allowed to import food to US?

[Maha Sarakham]

2 hours ago, ThePugAndMe said:

what kind of ball park are we looking at?

Probably $1000 for all those boxes.  It is about 2500-4500 baht per box depending on weight and dimension, no insurance.

[Monomial]

Question 1: 

 

Is that all for personal consumption, or is he planning on distributing it? If it is not strictly for personal consumption, you need to register with the US FDA (can be done online) and inform customs before sending it either via post or with a freight forwarder. If you use a freight forwarding company, either air or land, they will handle this part for you and charge you a fee. If you are going to use normal mail, you will need to take care of it yourself or risk having your shipment seized by customs. Only personal use items are exempt from this requirement. That is a lot of chips for 1 person....

 

Question 2:

 

How heavy is all of that? It looks like you will be paying dimensional weight for all of it if you go with a private air courier. Via the post office right now, a single box shipped via USPS surface mail is 550 baht anywhere from 1 gram to 5kg. Multiply the number of boxes times 550 baht and you will have your expected cost by post office surface mail. 3 month delivery. It looks like you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 - 20 boxes there, so I would plan on around 10,000 baht. Again, don't forget to handle the customs reporting issues on the US side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sirineou]

I don't know how significant to your friend these items are but it seems to me to be a very expensive and difficult way to get Thai snaks to him. Near both our Florida, and New York houses are several Asian markets that have pretty much anything from Thailand you want to buy. 

Edited June 8, 2020 by sirineou
typo

[ThePugAndMe]

Yikes, thanks for the helpful replies everyone!!

 

@Monomial It is not for personal consumption. Rich and spoiled influencers love Thai versions of popular snacks (e.g. Lays Chips with Thai flavors). It's currently the "in" thing to be doing to brazenly show off your wealth by chugging on $10 "rare" sodas for example - so the plan was for us to create mystery boxes of snacks to sell them.

 

With that in mind, even if we paid $500-1000 in shipping - our markup can be quite high so it wouldn't necessarily be a problem.

 

My job was just the logistics part and it's looking to be a real pain in the ass... do you reckon contacting a freight forwarder is the best option.

Edited June 8, 2020 by ThePugAndMe

[Monomial]

9 hours ago, ThePugAndMe said:

Yikes, thanks for the helpful replies everyone!!

 

@Monomial It is not for personal consumption. Rich and spoiled influencers love Thai versions of popular snacks (e.g. Lays Chips with Thai flavors). It's currently the "in" thing to be doing to brazenly show off your wealth by chugging on $10 "rare" sodas for example - so the plan was for us to create mystery boxes of snacks to sell them.

 

With that in mind, even if we paid $500-1000 in shipping - our markup can be quite high so it wouldn't necessarily be a problem.

 

My job was just the logistics part and it's looking to be a real pain in the ass... do you reckon contacting a freight forwarder is the best option.

 

I think you will find anyone willing to accept this consignment (other than the post office) is going to require paperwork from you that you can not possibly provide. You have no credible story that this is for personal consumption. The forms will require things like the required nutritional information to meet US labelling requirements, as well as the US FDA registration of the packing facility where the chips were sealed in their bags, and the registered US agent for that factory.  This usually is not something you can obtain. You would need to work with a Thai exporter who has the required local contacts to get everything needed.

 

And on the US import side, you are importing for commercial resale. That is another massive headache which will require jumping through hoops.

 

I think you honestly have only 2 realistic options.

 

1) Give the chips away to one of the many Covid-19 food banks. There are millions of poor Thais who would thank you. Then, go to Thaitown near Hollywood, CA, give your requirements to one of the Thai grocery stores there, and let them work with their importers to try and get the required goods for you. Once properly imported into the US, they can ship the chips to you relatively inexpensively.

 

2) Break your order up into very small boxes of not more than 2kg's per shipment, get 50 to 100 addresses of friends in the USA, and send a bunch of small packages via Thailand Post that can reasonably pass as personal consumption. You can then consolidate these packages once inside the USA back into a single order for delivery whereever it needs to go.

 

Be advised that there are no normal airmail or SAL postal services to the USA right now due to the global aviation shutdown, so you will either need to ship surface mail and accept 3 months delivery (which will be a flat fee of 550 baht per box plus 85 baht for registered tracking), or you will need to pay around 1000 baht/kg for courier post/EMS fees. 

 

Also, you can NOT ship liquids in the mail. Don't even try.  Any drinks are a lost cause.

 

 

 

 

[elektrified]

20 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Just something smaller than one of that boxes, sent to HKG by DHL cost me nearly 5000 baht for about half a kg. That'll be the most expensive chips on the planet by the time it hits US Customs where not only will customs on the chips have to be paid but on shipping as well. I think he's looking at several thousands of dollars in shipping and import duties.

 

Also I thought it's not allowed to import food to US?

Sounds like you over-paid. Coincidentally, I just yesterday sent a 500 gram package to Hong Kong by DHL. Cost 950 Baht.

Edited June 9, 2020 by elektrified

[tomazbodner]

5 hours ago, elektrified said:

Sounds like you over-paid. Coincidentally, I just yesterday sent a 500 gram package to Hong Kong by DHL. Cost 950 Baht.

It was 20 boxes of 50 face masks each, when virus just started spreading to Hong Kong. Light but large box.

[ThePugAndMe]

On 6/9/2020 at 9:38 AM, Monomial said:

 

I think you will find anyone willing to accept this consignment (other than the post office) is going to require paperwork from you that you can not possibly provide. You have no credible story that this is for personal consumption. The forms will require things like the required nutritional information to meet US labelling requirements, as well as the US FDA registration of the packing facility where the chips were sealed in their bags, and the registered US agent for that factory.  This usually is not something you can obtain. You would need to work with a Thai exporter who has the required local contacts to get everything needed.

 

And on the US import side, you are importing for commercial resale. That is another massive headache which will require jumping through hoops.

 

I think you honestly have only 2 realistic options.

 

1) Give the chips away to one of the many Covid-19 food banks. There are millions of poor Thais who would thank you. Then, go to Thaitown near Hollywood, CA, give your requirements to one of the Thai grocery stores there, and let them work with their importers to try and get the required goods for you. Once properly imported into the US, they can ship the chips to you relatively inexpensively.

 

2) Break your order up into very small boxes of not more than 2kg's per shipment, get 50 to 100 addresses of friends in the USA, and send a bunch of small packages via Thailand Post that can reasonably pass as personal consumption. You can then consolidate these packages once inside the USA back into a single order for delivery whereever it needs to go.

 

Be advised that there are no normal airmail or SAL postal services to the USA right now due to the global aviation shutdown, so you will either need to ship surface mail and accept 3 months delivery (which will be a flat fee of 550 baht per box plus 85 baht for registered tracking), or you will need to pay around 1000 baht/kg for courier post/EMS fees. 

 

Also, you can NOT ship liquids in the mail. Don't even try.  Any drinks are a lost cause.

 

 

 

 

 

Come on @Monomial - I appreciate your input but not so much the pessimism:

 

According to this article we can get a PN number and I've managed to get a quote from a number of freight forwarders.

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-717?language=en_US

 

We're talking to US customs now.... the covid-19 foodbanks will sadly not be benefiting from my transfat laden wares this time.