I'll let you into a little secret, Switzerland isn't third world, far from it
The rules are more relaxed for importation as part of relocation to Switzerland (for which you might need evidence) than they are for regular importation. House plants are allowed certainly.
Stuff that van full to the top and sell the stuff on to desperate Brits at 10x the cost.
You might be surprised to learn that in summer anyway, it's way warmer than the UK here (even in the mountains)
Hi Starship, best of luck for your upcoming move!!
Just a quick word of caution - the embassy are not customs officials, and it is possible this advice isn't fully accurate. I moved here from the UK 12 months ago, and it was made very clear to me (by my relocation company) that plants would not be accepted.
I'm not wanting to dampen your spirits, I would just hate for you to be disappointed.
Embassies just give out information, what they say doesn’t in anyway influence the border authorities. I would expect commercially sealed tried food would not be an issue, but plants might be.
Check with the shipping company if there are any additional charges if your stuff gets stuck in clearance.
Totally agree with the latest posts. I am moving now as well from the UK back to CH. I brought my garden plants from Switzerland to UK just before the UK officially leaving the EU. However I’ve been now told those Swiss plants will need to learn to love London as they can’t come with me without some complicated Export and and horticultural inspections - I was warned that it was expensive and they would not support and could hold up the rest of my belongings.
Just to share an update on this - just in case anyone ends up in my situation
The movers packed everything for me, and they also packed up my food. So I brought my 20kg bag of Tilda Basmati rice as its one of my fav brands of rice and I am used to buying one per year.I also brought lots of jars of my favourite things and even my favourite bags of crisps that I knew I couldn't find in Migro or Coop or anywhere in CH...
Even though Im looking forward to living and eating CH food, its been so so nice to bring over some of my favourite foods to ease me in, I don't live close to a supermarket (I have to get a bus to get to one) and I don't have a car so given the rain its just convenient when you emigrate.
I would 100% recommend someone else who is a foodie to do the same, its just one less thing to think about. I wasn't able to order online food here because coop online only let me do it if I had a Swiss mobile number and I couldn't get my Swiss mobile number until I showed them some emigration docs which you don't get immediately.
So to summarise its easier to bring some food to help make life easier in the first few weeks
Just be aware that the movers won't insure food- but I was happy with that.
It all arrived fine, none of the jars were broken.
The only thing I was not allowed to move were dairy items.
I hope this helps others who might be emigrating from the UK to CH post Brexit !
Ummm....Tilda rice is readily available here, even in LIDL.
In Austria?
I’ve not seen the Tilda rice in the Lidl here in Neuchâtel but they do sell the massive bags of it in the Asian stores here.
What about your plants, @StarShip?
Yes I read a lot of mixed reviews about various Asian shops and over pricing.
So decided to bring my bag until I find a trustworthy retail outlet.
It’s just convenient at the start when you move somewhere and there is so much going on!
Sadly, this was just not possible in the time I had to sort it out.
But I did call the Swiss embassy and they confirmed I could bring them if I had certificates.
Unfortunately with Brexit, the U.K. has not put in place a revised process for individuals to get these certificates (we didn’t need them before Brexit) and the department that do it are completely over run with commercial requests.
I estimated it would have been £25-40 per plant if I could find someone to do
the certificate but then the movers have stopped offering to move it because they don’t want to deal with fines when customers have not got the paper work in order.
Here are some links the Swiss Embassy gave me
Plants:
https://www.bazg.admin.ch/bazg/en/ho...s--cites-.html
Food
https://www.blv.admin.ch/blv/en/home...severkehr.html
So I gave my plants to my parents and siblings, they appreciate them and I’m
Going to start again here- I did ship some of my favourite plant pots ☺️
For others interested I do think it’s possible to move plants
but it’s convoluted at the moment and hopefully when the process is more transparent with the U.K. then the movers will agree to do it again.
Worth also knowing that my movers used to do it and similar to food it wouldn’t be covered. by the insurance so you would be responsible for packaging it up well and keeping it hydrated enroute with suitable slow watering devices.
I hope this helps !!