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import some leaf into New Zealand

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freedompiper

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Orson Carte

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This may very well be correct but I think that when you pay the fee to either of the treatment you are forced to accept a waiver (inherent in the agreement of both providers) that they cannot be held liable for any damage to the goods being treated.
 

FmGrowit

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The heat treatment is nothing more than a passive aggressive move on the part of the NZ government. I have sent shipments with a USDA Phytosanitary certificate that customs would not recognize. There are customs workers who do not know what they are inspecting and mistakenly declare a blemish in the leave "mold". I have asked for an Import Permit which very specifically outlines the exact concerns of importing tobacco into NZ and your government refuses to issue one.

I send tobacco to other countries that actually grow tobacco as a crop. Understandably, It is a major concern that nothing harmful to their crop be imported into their country, so they issue an Import Permit which the USDA inspector must adhere to. If the tobacco proposed to be imported is contaminated, the inspector rejects the tobacco and we're prohibited from sending it. This situation has never occurred with my tobacco, but I have heard stories of it happening.

I've hear rumors of a new company doing the heat treating and there are hopes of the tobacco not being so harshly handled, but I suspect the new company is simply an acquaintance of a bureaucrat who will get a nice cut from the very lucrative business of heat treating.

If you allow the government walk all over you...it will.
 

Orson Carte

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The 'new' company you allude to is 'Rentokil', a recognized global leader in pest control for more than ninety years.
On the corruption bit, you may think me naive, but I really don't think there would be any graft involved in their enlistment or on-going operation. New Zealand, along with Denmark, is ranked (by 'Transparency International') right at the top of the world's least corrupt countries - so, we assume a little more trust than average.
From what I have seen of Rentokil's performance so far it would appear that they a lot more conscientious than the other existing contractor - there was (and I think, still is) something seriously astray with the operation of the latter.
At the very least, we now have a choice of whom we pay to treat it.
I also think it is fair to say that it is too easy to blame the contractor for any leaf that comes through less than 'perfect'. Over the past few years I have seen enough parcels that have completely avoided any treatment (in NZ) and they have sometimes contained leaf that an overly discerning buyer might call 'burned'. So, 'heat treatment' is not always the culprit.
 

burge

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Hopefully the Black Friday deal will be good guys so this is the one time of year to be purchasing leaf.
 

FmGrowit

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The 'new' company you allude to is 'Rentokil', a recognized global leader in pest control for more than ninety years.
On the corruption bit, you may think me naive, but I really don't think there would be any graft involved in their enlistment or on-going operation. New Zealand, along with Denmark, is ranked (by 'Transparency International') right at the top of the world's least corrupt countries - so, we assume a little more trust than average.
From what I have seen of Rentokil's performance so far it would appear that they a lot more conscientious than the other existing contractor - there was (and I think, still is) something seriously astray with the operation of the latter.
At the very least, we now have a choice of whom we pay to treat it.
I also think it is fair to say that it is too easy to blame the contractor for any leaf that comes through less than 'perfect'. Over the past few years I have seen enough parcels that have completely avoided any treatment (in NZ) and they have sometimes contained leaf that an overly discerning buyer might call 'burned'. So, 'heat treatment' is not always the culprit.
I have never heard one single complaint about any leaf we ship to NZ as being "burnt" unless it has gone through the heat treatment process.
 

stic

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That's the issue; Heat treatment is now mandatory (many shipments slipped through without it before), and 'Flick' seemed to be completely incapable of reproducing a similar treatment, varying form no damage at all, to burnt to a crisp in a purely random manner...

All reports on the new outfit "rentokil" is that they seem to do a much better job without excessive damage.
 

Orson Carte

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That's the issue; Heat treatment is now mandatory (many shipments slipped through without it before), and 'Flick' seemed to be completely incapable of reproducing a similar treatment, varying form no damage at all, to burnt to a crisp in a purely random manner...

All reports on the new outfit "rentokil" is that they seem to do a much better job without excessive damage.

There are still parcels coming through that completely skip quarantine heat treatment. It still all seems pretty random.
As a matter of interest, the new provider, 'Rentokil', who assert at the head of their mailer, 'Complete this form to receive your parcel in just 7-10 days' are now saying (in reply from an email from me asking why I still haven't received a parcel I paid for treatment almost three months ago) that there is now a 'two to three week delay'.
 

stic

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I'd say call customs, but, I doubt you'd get any sense from them either....

For an arm of a government agency, tasked with bio security and border security, they sure do appear to know NOTHING about what they are doing...
 

burge

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From my understanding they are using a new process. So should be okay I think Where does it come in and can you supervise the process.? What leaves are good at a higher temperature?
 

Charly

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Thank you freedompiper for that info.
I have printed out the relevant pages and will do some reading.
I am currently sitting on 16 pounds of charcoal which is a total loss of NZ $876 for me.
........... not happy :(

I understand your disappointment.... :(
Sorry for your loss.
 

freedompiper

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That's awful, Jenny. You should make inquiries. The big cigar manufacturers like Davidoff freeze treat their leaf before export. It only has to hit -4c for a very short time to kill all the bugs, eggs etc. There is an MPI freeze treatment that takes it to -10c for a week. I'm wondering if that would be less damaging to the leaf than 85c for 15 hours and whether MPI would consider it as an alternate option. It does say on their website somewhere feel free to request an alternate treatment or words to that effect.
 
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