Where we can send plant fibre

The two classes

Every piece on this site is in one of two classes, and the class is printed on the card, on the piece’s own page, and in your bag.

Plant fibre — 38 items

Rattan, bamboo, willow, rush, sedge, seagrass and water hyacinth. These are raw or lightly worked plant material: split, soaked, dried, sometimes boiled, but still recognisably the plant. That is what a border agency inspects for, because plant material can carry pests and pathogens. Our one plant-fibre care item, the natural repair cord, sits in this class too.

Processed fibre — 34 items

Cotton cord, paper cord and recycled fibre cord. Cotton is cleaned, carded, spun and plied. Paper cord is pulped and reformed. Recycled cord is shredded and respun. In each case the plant structure has been destroyed by the processing, which is why these carry far less biosecurity risk and why we can send them everywhere we ship.

The class never changes the price. A plant-fibre piece is not marked up for the paperwork it needs, and a processed-fibre piece is not marked down for needing none.

Country by country

Countries we do not send plant fibre to

• Australia — Australia does not accept untreated woven plant material, and an arriving parcel is treated or destroyed at the addressee’s cost. We have chosen not to send plant-fibre pieces there rather than pass you that bill.
• New Zealand — New Zealand runs a specific import health standard for bamboo, cane, willow and rattan requiring a permit, treatment and certification. We have chosen not to send plant-fibre pieces there rather than have them held for fumigation at your cost.

This is our decision, not a statement that these countries ban the goods outright. Both countries have routes by which treated, certified plant material can be imported. We have judged that the risk of a parcel being held, fumigated or destroyed — and of you being billed for it — is not worth taking on a single piece that cannot be replaced. Processed fibre goes to both countries normally, and every one of our six shapes has processed-fibre pieces in it, so nothing is closed off entirely.

Countries where a phytosanitary certificate travels with the parcel

• United States
• Canada
• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czechia
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• Norway
• Iceland
• Switzerland

For these destinations a plant-fibre piece is treated before it leaves and a phytosanitary certificate is issued for the consignment and attached to it. We arrange this and its cost is inside the shipping figure you are quoted — it is not added later and it is not added to the price of the piece.

Everywhere else we ship

• Asia Pacific — Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Macao SAR, Chinese mainland, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, India
• Middle East & Africa — United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Türkiye, South Africa
• Latin America — Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina

Plant-fibre pieces go to these destinations as standard. Your own border agency may still inspect, treat or hold a parcel of plant material, and any charge it raises is billed to you, not to us.

If your country is not in any of those lists, we do not currently ship there. This shop ships worldwide only in the sense that it ships to the countries listed on this page and to no others, and for plant-fibre pieces only to those where the two paragraphs above allow it.

What we provide

• A treatment statement. Each piece’s page states what has been done to the fibre: whether it was boiled, dried, waxed, or left alone. We do not describe any piece as treated against pests unless it has been.
• A phytosanitary certificate for plant-fibre pieces going to the destinations listed above, arranged by us and included in the shipping figure.
• An honest customs declaration. The parcel is declared as what it is — woven plant fibre or woven cord — at the price you paid. We will not under-declare a parcel or mark a sale as a gift.

What you may have to do

• Some countries require the importer, not the sender, to hold a permit for plant material. Where that applies it is yours to obtain before ordering.
• Some countries require you to declare a plant-material parcel on arrival or to present it for inspection.
• Import duty and tax is assessed against you as importer. See delivery.

What we cannot promise

We can supply a phytosanitary certificate for plant-fibre pieces where the destination requires one, and we state which treatment each piece has had.

We cannot guarantee that any given country’s border agency will release a parcel. Biosecurity decisions are theirs, not ours. Where a plant-fibre piece is refused or held for treatment, the cost of that treatment is charged by that agency to you, not to us.

What we will do, if a plant-fibre piece is refused entry and destroyed by a border agency despite this page having said we send there, is refund the price of the piece in full. That is a promise about our own judgement, not about the border.

How the shop uses this

• The first filter on the shelf is the destination country, ahead of shape, material and size.
• A piece we will not send to your country is greyed out, not hidden. It stays on the page, readable, with the reason attached and a processed-fibre alternative beside it. Removing it would be a misleading omission.
• If a piece we do not send to your destination is in your bag, the checkout button is held shut, and the server refuses the order independently of what the browser says.
• Your destination country is kept for the length of your visit and saved with an order so we can ship and clear it. It is not written into a profile and is not used to train a recommendation. See privacy.

This page is not legal advice

It is a description of what Hong Kong Bolin Rui International Trade Limited does and does not ship, and of the paperwork we provide. Import requirements are set by each country and change. Before you order a plant-fibre piece, check what your own biosecurity or agriculture authority currently requires. If this page and that authority disagree, the authority is right.