Frequently Asked Questions - About my order

We accept bank transfer or credit card payments. The accepted credit cards are VISA, Mastercard and Carte Bleue. The transfer data can be found in the mail with the payment link that you receive from us.

The payment link only works for holders of VISA, Mastercard and Carte Bleue. If you are not a holder of one of hese cards, you’ll have to make a bank transfer.

Please contact us and explain the problem. Add your order number to your message so we can identify you.

We will send you the payment information in a new email.

We are sorry, but bank transfer, Visa, Mastercard and Carte Bleue are our only options.

If you did not pay the full amount, we will not produce or ship your order. We produce only after receiving your payment, unless agreed otherwise.

If we do not receive payment after sending our offer, we will not start the production of your ordered goods. Know that our offer has a validity period of 3 months.

Our prices are in our webshop. Just select your product and indicate the quantity: the unit price appears (and gets less expensive the more you order of the same product). Additional costs such as transport or the cost of certain documents are not automatically included. We will add these costs manually and email you back.

Due to risk of overheating, mycelium cannot be safely shipped to anywhere in the world all year round. Therefore, we have to double check each order manually. As a result, the transport cost is added manually, in our back office. For this reason, this website does not automatically offer you an offer with transport cost included.

Mycelium cultures, spawn and other mycelium products are living organisms. They will be treated similarly to “plant seeds” by your customs officials. They cannot be shipped without the proper documents. Getting these documents will require an effort on both your and our side, and it will add to the cost of your invoice.

Which document requirements should you expect? The majority of countries require the following:

1. Standard export documents (packing list + invoices). We provide these documents for you.
2. For most countries, you will need to apply for an import permit. You need to send us a copy of this document.
3. After we have received a scan of your import permit, we can apply for a phytosanitary certificate from our government. We will attach it to your delivery and this adds 78 EUR to your invoice.

Exceptions:

• If you are from an EU country (including Switzerland), there is free trade of fungi. Exceptions to this exception are territories such as the Azores, the Canary Islands, Réunion, etc.
• On rare occasions, countries also require extra documents such as a certificate of origin, that you must request from your authority (Maghreb, Middle-East, etc) or other documents. In some cases, a EUR.1 document can be a solution – see below
• If there are trade agreements between your country and the EU, we can upon your request add a EUR.1 document to your export documents at a cost of 40 € per shipment. This is a good idea, because it reduces the import duties you will need to pay and it may reduce the paperwork in general
• Some species of fungi are considered a pest or a contaminant. In this case, an import permit is not sufficient, you will also need to convince your state administration that the import is justified. If the strain description in our catalogue contains this phrase: “Possibly considered a pest or contaminant by your administration”, you may expect extra paperwork. See FAQ below “How do I import a known pest or contaminant into my country?“
• Some countries have specific restrictions on importing mycelium products, such as New Zealand and Australia. The lists of these countries limit even more than usual the possibilities of importing fungal species.

If you have specific questions about restrictions or extra documents, you will need to ask your own government officials. We do not know every possible restriction worldwide.

For most countries outside of the EU, you need an import permit (syn. import licence) for mycelium from Belgium. Through the import permit, your government approves the import of our goods into your country. Unfortunately, there is no ready-to-use list of who does or does not need an import licence for which organism. You will have to check with the customs or with your Ministry whether it is necessary or not.

What is the competent authority in your country? That depends. In most countries, it is the National Ministry of Agriculture (and fisheries). But in the US for example, the competent authority is the State Department of Agriculture.

We cannot apply for your import permit. You have to do this yourself. You will need to apply for the licence from your relevant official office (usually the Ministry of Agriculture or equivalent). Your import permit must state EXACTLY what you intend to import.

You need to send us a copy of this import permit. As soon as we have your permit, we can apply for your phytosanitary certificate (more information see FAQ below).

Getting an import permit is sometimes a slow process. This may cause a significant delay to your mycelium shipment.

This document is usually valid for a certain period of time, regardless of the amount of shipments, or the amount of imported goods.

You need a phytosanitary certificate if you export our goods beyond the EU (exceptions: UK, CH).

You cannot buy a phytosanitary certificate yourself; we – the exporters – have to get it for you. We will apply for it once you have sent us a copy of your import permit. This phytosanitary certificate costs 78 EUR.

A phytosanitary certificate is an official document required by your country customs when shipping restricted articles such as plants, plant products or other regulated articles, and therefore also for all the mycelium products you buy in our webshop. This document is the proof that your products are indeed the species we claim them to be. It is an official certificate generated by the exporting country, in our case Belgium. In some countries (e.g US), such a certificate can be issued by the company itself, but not in Belgium.

Exception: shipments to overseas EU territories such as the Azores, the Canary Islands and Réunion require a phytosanitary certificate.

This document is valid for 1 shipment only, regardless of the quantity shipped, the product(s) or the species. 

On rare occasions, countries require additional documents such as a Certificate of Origin (Maghreb, Middle East, etc.).

A Certificate of Origin is a document that states the origin of the goods you have ordered, the description of the products, and the name and address of the seller and buyer.

If your country asks for a certificate, let us know and we will apply for it from our government. The cost of this document is 30 EUR.

Note: If there are trade agreements between your country and the EU, we can add a EUR.1 document to your export documents upon your request at a cost of 40 EUR per shipment. This reduces the import duties you will need to pay and may reduce the paperwork in general. For example: if you have a EUR.1 document, your officials will probably not request for a Certificate of Origin.

That depends. The rules on VAT differ whether you are a customer from Belgium, from Europe or outside Europe:

• Customers in Belgium: you are charged 6% VAT on mycelium products and 21% VAT on other products (including transport and document costs). No exceptions.
• Customers inside the EU: you are charged 6% VAT on mycelium products and 21% on other products (including transport and document costs) unless if you can provide us a valid European VAT-number. Fill out this number in your personal account on this website. If you have a valid EU VAT-number, you will not pay VAT on your invoice. Not sure if you number is valid? Check the VIES website.
• Customers outside of the EU: you do not pay VAT to us, as long as we have export documents. If we have to ship your goods to a location in the EU (including Belgium), we do not have such documents. In that case, you will need to pay VAT: 6% on mycelium products, 21% on other products (including transport and document costs).

Yes, you will.

Consult your local customs officials to receive more information. Every country has different import fees for mycelium from the EU.

Our UK customers do not have to pay an import fee (but other costs apply – see this FAQ.

There are quite a few changes indeed. Since the Brexit, shipments between the EU and the UK (except Northern Ireland) have become export shipments. Since we have exported for more than 45 years, this is not problematic from our end. For our British customers however, there are a few important changes. But no worries: since the 1st of January 2021 we have assisted our UK customers just like before. Since the Brexit, the following has changed:

1) Trade between the EU and the UK is indeed more complicated. For the time being, there is no import tax on our products from the UK government. On the other hand, there is a “duty + administration cost” to be paid. This cost basically covers the workings of the customs services and of the shipping company. This cost is charged to you by the shipping company.

If you are a regular professional company using pallet freight, this is done by an importer where you can open an account.

If it is a courier service such as DHL, we have an official distributor for spawn in the UK: Urban Farm-it. We are not distributing small shipments to the UK ourselves anymore. Check the Urban Farm-it (UFI) website for more information.

2) The transport price has been impacted due to formality issues at customs.

3) Customs clearance is required on both sides of the Channel. This should not cause any problems. We provide ALL the necessary paperwork, without charging any additional cost. Note: there are no foreseeable restrictions on the trade of “spawn” as such, or on any mushroom product for that matter.

1. Shipments within the European Union (including Northern Ireland): Free trade zone, only delivery note required.
2. Shipments to Switzerland (CH) and the United Kingdom (UK): only the standard export documents are required: packing list + invoices. All these standard documents are provided by us at no extra cost. Phytosanitary certificates are not required. NOTE: Soon, a phytosanitary certificate will be compulsory for all mycelium shipments to the UK. This will increase the spawn costs considerably. Due to politics, the deadline keeps shifting. We will update this FAQ when we have more news.
3. Shipments to Norway (N): the situation changed in March 2021. Standard export documents are required: packing list + invoices. All these standard documents are provided by us as a free service. Since March 2021, a phytosanitary certificate is also required – this adds an extra document cost of 78 EUR to each shipment. Import permit is not required.

Since the 1st of October 2021, we have a local distributor in the UK, Urban Farm-It (UFI) from which you will be able to buy guaranteed fresh products from us.

Most of the species we have in our catalogue are not considered pests or contaminants. But there are some that are, or can be. These species can appear on a quarantine list, which is maintained by your administration. Every country has a different quarantine list, we do not have a copy of this list for your country.

If the species you wish to buy is on your national quarantine list, it is more complicated to get an import permit. You will need to communicate with your competent administration in order to get an exception and a permit to import.Once you have this exception, you can apply for an import permit.

EXAMPLE from the US. How do you import a ‘pest fungus’ into the US? The quarantine list is a federal matter, governed by the Code of Federal Regulations 7 CFR 330. If you wish to obtain an exception to the quarantine, you need to apply for a PPQ Form 526 Permit. Once you have this, you can apply for an import permit from the State Department of Agriculture.

NOTE: Even if you have this authorization to import the pest, you still need an import permit.
Why? The imported material may still be inspected. Customs officers need to verify that the product is free from
contaminants such as insects, weed seeds and/or soil. That is why we still need to add a phytosanitary certificate.