Hi Marco,

To export, you should contact local customs and learn the requirements
for clearing your country - I know the requirements for Turkey and they
are not always simple. As for entry into the USA, you can send via DHL
(expensive) as "Samples of no commercial value," if that's the case - or
you can send as an export. But you'll find that commercial air will
charge you for a minimum of 45 kilos or so regardless of the weight and
you can't consider sea transport - too small for that. So DHL might be
the cheapest reliable way to send it - of course postal is another way
and that's fine if your system is more flexible and reliable than ours
here in Turkey.

> I must send a 12 bottles box to a fellow programmer in USA: after shareware
> I make "oil-ware" programs ;-)
> How can I avoid problems with FDA and US Customs?

Include a phytosanitary certificate from your governmental health agency
and whatever form of lab test you have on the oils. The label must have
nutritional values and be in English or a translation provided. This
will preclude problems with the FDA. As for US Customs - there's no
problem. Either the receiver pays duty or not. Turkish olive oil is
duty free - not sure of Italian.

> Must I print the "nutrition label" or what?
> The producer is a "one-man-company" earning no more than 2500$/yrs (yep!
> less than 5.000.000 of Italian Lire) with his oil.
> I see somewhere in the 15 Megabyte of pages I download from the FDA site
> that some homemade products don't go under FDA strict regulamentations: is
> this true?

Whether it's true of not depends of whether or not they consider the
product homemade and also how they feel on that day .. ;-) Generally,
that homemade catch-all is for cottage industry type products, like hand
made soaps, etc. Seriously, different customs inspectors see things
differently and it can be a hassle if you try to cut corners.

> The oil will be paid with credit card: must I enclose a "pro-forma invoice"?

Yes - a packing list, a proforma invoice and/or an invoice. This will
likely be a requirement for exiting your country. If you deal with DHL,
they will help you with all of this.

> Just in case there are problem to sell, what about if I send oil as "gift"
> for "taggiasca mailing list supporters"?

It's your call on the "gift" business - it's hit or miss. If it's truly
a gift or samples without commerical value, then say so.

> Thanks a lot for your help. Marco Bernardini

I've been exporting to the USA for 5 years and the above info is based
on my experience - all of which was learned the hard way. Good luck and
y'all keep smiling, Butch Owen in Ankara http://www.AV-AT.com

Thanks everybody!
Now I try to merge all useful infos I receive.
I'll must write a page for my site about this stuff.

The producer must:
- have phytosanitary certificate from your governmental health agency
- have lab tests
- contact local customs and learn the requirements for clearing Italy
- print "nutritional labels" in English and Italian (hint: I see on FDA
site some companies located here asking for exemption, but I think it's
better to have them in any case)
- include packing list and proforma invoice

On our site I state that duty is charged to the customer who must ask by
himself.

We ship thru TNT-Traco because we have a subscription for our computer shop
and our typography, so we can have better conditions and, moreover, the
commercial contact is a very pretty girl: this makes working days less
heavy :-)

[later]
I check just now TNT fares with the pretty girl: it seems fares are
including a dining with her!
15 kg = 466,000 lire (217 $) -> 15.47 $/kg
20 kg = 584,000 lire (271 $) -> 13.55 $/kg
100 kg = 2,018,000 lire (939 $) -> 9.39 $/kg

Knows someone cheaper shippers, or must I borrow my neighbour's sailboat? <g>

Bye!

Marco Bernardini