Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# bringing food into samoa Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Samoa
hardfinger 04:51 UTC 11 Oct 2008 | I am planning on bringing a friend in samoa a big hunk of grana parmesan cheese.. it is deli stuff so not sealed in plastic, will it get thru customs? thanks |
hardfinger 12:47 UTC 11 Oct 2008 | customs being two samoan dudes who hopefully dont like parmesan... were it a ham hock i might be in trouble huh. | 1
islandboi321 16:05 UTC 12 Oct 2008 | I routinely bring in food to Samoa... All of it packaged and declared, of course, so I can't tell how how customs agents will react to a hunk of unpackaged parmesan. I found customs agents here to be as diligent and professional as anywhere so if they're doing their job, you will probably lose the cheese like anywhere... Unless it is shrink wrapped and declared. What a shame if they do... Good parmesian is hard to come by anywhere in the world, let alone the Pacific islands. | 2
wksamoa 00:13 UTC 14 Oct 2008 | Dairy products are treated the same as fresh meat products. 1.You have to declare them upon arrival 2.You have to obtain an import permit by the Samoan Quarantine Authority (can be contacted by email) 3.You have to bring a certificate from the agriculture department in your country of origin that the specific item you bring is safe All this refers to packed or unpacked food alike. Declared upon arrival and with proper permit and certificate at hand there will most likely be no problem to bring the cheese into Samoa (I already envy the one who gets it). Otherwise not. BTW these regulations are exactly the same for Samoa as they are for Australia. They are copied from there. For the same reasons. Very good reasons. And that is why Australia gave a sound training here in Samoa in how to enforce those regulations. The training worked well and I agree with #2: regardless of their own food preferences the customs and quarantine agents here in Samoa are diligent and professional; quite able to catch any Australian dude trying to be smart. | 3