Chile Forum

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The only "certs" I am aware of in this area is if you are imported unroasted coffee beans for commercial purposes, from the countries that the SAG recognises as free of whatever plagas they are concerned with. But that is for UNroasted coffee beans. Personal experience as noted earlier is that roasted beans and ground coffee either via mail or hand-carry has never been a problem.

Likewise when I am driving long distances I carry a big plastic jar of hierba mate (since I brew it in the truck while driving and talking on the cell phone and typing on the laptop) -- I always declare the mate, never have had a SAG problem there either.

In theory, it is not a problem. In practice, companies like UPS or whatever can turn it in to an expensive mess. Most of the messes in regards this we have encountered are people sending human consumables along with say their new laptop. The food gets flagged, and the laptop or whatever is tied up with it.

admin wrote:In theory, it is not a problem. In practice, companies like UPS or whatever can turn it in to an expensive mess. Most of the messes in regards this we have encountered are people sending human consumables along with say their new laptop. The food gets flagged, and the laptop or whatever is tied up with it.

always seperate items of value with food and items of non value,

Also, a trap of new players, if many packages for you arrive on the same incoming shipment, they can (not always) get held up, so put a couple of days between shipments to make sure they dont arrive on the same plane, especially if there are 2 packages for one for $US 990 and one for $US 15.... puts you over the limit of the $1000 and you need a agent!

After realizing that REAL coffee was generally unavailable in Futaleufu, I bought cafe en grano in Esquel, ARG. Not that great, but better than Nescafe. I specifically asked the aduana at the Futa/Argentina border about coffee and he said no special permission was required. Each subsequent trip to Chile from Panama, I brought 20-pounds of coffee, fresh roasted "en grano" from our coffee farm in Panama. I declared it on the aduana form and had absolutely no problems at all clearing customs at the Santiago airport. As for mailing it from Panama...things can get snagged up and by the time the stuff got all the way to Futa, it's not good, fresh roasted anymore.

After realizing that REAL coffee was generally unavailable in Futaleufu, I bought cafe en grano in Esquel, ARG. Not that great, but better than Nescafe. I specifically asked the aduana at the Futa/Argentina border about coffee and he said no special permission was required. Each subsequent trip to Chile from Panama, I brought 20-pounds of coffee, fresh roasted "en grano" from our coffee farm in Panama. I declared it on the aduana form and had absolutely no problems at all clearing customs at the Santiago airport. As for mailing it from Panama...things can get snagged up and by the time the stuff got all the way to Futa, it's not good, fresh roasted anymore.

Vicki and Greg Lansen: very nice to see you posting on the forum again.

operarose wrote:... yes, I was drinking Britt which I found fine, but our local Jumbo hasn't had it for a few weeks now...

Yes, this is the case locally, as well. Not only the Britt "organic", but any other kind of ground Britt has disappeared from the shelves [there are still some Britt beans, though] from the local Jumbo, leaving the customers with a choice of a number of others, that tend to be more or less acceptable from time to time.

However, when these "other" brands one get are relatively good for drinking -- this is really unpredictable. Say, one time out of five -- one can get a pack of a relatively cheap coffee, that is considerably more fresh and tasty than the very same brands' product packed on the other day (as the day of packaging is always shown).

Thus, they have around 4 "CAFE CABRALES" varieties, the color of the pack of the best one (for me personally) is white, it is some 4.500 CLP/250g, also they have "blue" (it is "JUMBO" co-branded, cheap), red (with sugar mixed in it, cheap), and one more, that I got yesterday -- at 3.750 peso/250g.

Also, they had one [last] pack of GOLD (2.350 peso/250g) -- that is sometimes acceptable, though not always.

And quite a few other brands, one is very expensive, close to 7.000/250g, and 3 others (in the COPACABANA, or the HAITI price range) that are less than 2000, or around 2000 / 250g pack, or a bit more.

el gatito wrote:Vicki and Greg Lansen: very nice to see you posting on the forum again.

Ditto!!!

The postman woke me up this morning to deliver 16 assorted half-pound bags of coffee beans ordered on Jan 19 from Porto Rico Importing in NYC. (Priority mail at Express speed - I lucked out.) $80 for the beans plus $53 for the shipping. That works out to about the same price per pound as the $6.000 twelve oz. organic Cafe Britt which has been sitting in my local Jumbo since early September.