Wondering what I need to do to send about 5kg of (edit: white) rice as a present from Japan to the USA as a personal gift. Any special permits required? Any other factors to consider?
Apologies if this has already been addressed somewhere else. Thank you!
6 comments
You can’t, it’s illegal to send raw grain across any international border without a permit.
It seems it is OK, as long as the rice is milled (ie the husk is removed).
As Japanese rice is processed and polished, it should be fine for importation into the US.
US Dept of Agriculture advice here:
https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/what-are-the-regulations-for-importing-rice-into-the-united-states
My wife’s uncle is a big rice farmer and every time we go to our place in the US to escape Japanese summers, we take several bags of white rice from his farm with us. Apart from the first time we declared it at customs (and were told we didn’t need to), we’ve never done so since and it’s never been a problem.
Just curious I don’t know the answer, but is it rice you can’t find in a typical Japanese/Korean supermarket back in America?
I’ve never had trouble buying Koshihikari rice (best rice in the planet imo) in my nearby Korean supermarket in America 🤦♂️
I have sent ‘easy rice’ before to the US .. that ‘s the cooked microwaveable type .. not sure if that’s what you want to send..
There are no barriers or major hoops to jump through. Rice off the shelf ready for cooking is not prohibited or controlled. Pretty much the same thing as sending a bag of sugar or salt or cookies.
But one thing for your consideration is method of shipping. Because it’s heavy you may be tempted to go for slow inexpensive shipping method. But – especially if you are sending it now because it is fresh crop – you might want to consider sending it as fast as possible to minimize the time the rice is outside of a controlled temperature environment.
Also make sure to double or triple bag. Put the bag of rice inside some kind of other bag (ziplock or garbage bag or whatever based on the size). Can save a lot of heartburn if a small hole opens in the product bag – especially if you are sending other things in the same box/package.