The LBAM are coming!

Bill Bergstrom said somethingn along the lines that it wasn't going to cause any problems.... I think he's mistaken.

Looking at it again, most of the host crops seem to be dicots, plantain and corn are the only monocots listed...

...One if by land and two if by sea and I on the phone with california shall be....

Most wholesale FEDEX shipments leaving Hawaii have a stop over in the CA.

Here are quoted portions of two of the emails I got this morning:

2.) " As by now most of you have heard about LBAM ( light brown apple moth) that has been found in California (source unknown?) that has turned the world of exporting plants out of Hawaii upside down since the moth has been quietly present here for the last 100 years (never heard of it until now...)!! First California DOA jumps in & then UDSA and now we have arrived at the place of.....................NO shipments anywhere in the USA without a physical inspection and Phytosanitary certificate! Did I mention that this moth only lives at elevations of around 4,000 feet???? So, now we have a limited number of Ag inspectors that will be racing around the islands inspecting plants by the thousands (all plants, not just orchids) for export that are primarily grown between

Some of the hawaiin vendors seem a bit more paniced than others. I guess panic level depends on weekly gross shipments. These two quoted sections I cut-n-pasted here are from some wholesale hawaiin shippers I have delt with. My 'run for the hills' comment was somewhat tongue in cheek. I really don't know what's going on except for these and a few other emails from my regualr suppliers I found in my inbox this morning. I was just amused at the tone from these wholesalers and especially the various costs they quoted in their emails for the new inspection requirements. Probably many will just absorb the fees and say nothing, Probably many smaller retail venodrs don't even know about this yet.

AND probably a few retail level *orchid* shipments through and into California will get trapped by inspectors THERE. I do not know....

You think the new inspection fees are bad. Wait till you get the new postal rates figured out. If you use priority mail and a box over 1 cubic foot, bend over. What did Al say--yipee!!

Pat

I stopped having fun a year or so ago.

...And then there are all those people paying for plants with all those free gift point credit cards. I wonder how many think these are really give backs from their credit card company?

...and if anybody mentions next year's winter oil prices, I will destroy your planet and never look back.

my lawyer has just advised me that the fine print of my merchant account prohibits me from discussing their fees with my customers. Okay, so I take it all back...I am a raving idiot. I admit it freely. ...apparently they'll give a merchant account to anyone.

The LBAM are still coming!

ok, so we should pay either with cash or a gallon of heating oil. - makes note-

--j_a

A gallon? This is my standard line to customers who ask, "Do you take credit cards?":

"MasterCard, Visa, checks, cash, barrels of oil. Sorry I no longer accept the first born"...and then if that works out as expected many people say something like "You could always put them to work in the greenhouse" which is my well practiced que for "Phfff, ...they just run away, and then what do I got?"

That's okay, I still ask mom and pop merchants. "So, which credit card company has the smallest take, or are you using one of those unified services?" If I'm feeling really nasty, I ask them how much telecheck reams them for each check.