Orchid Exporters in Thailand: What an Overseas Buyer Checks Before Ordering

How do you check that a Thai orchid exporter is who it says it is?

Ask for the registrations Thai rules require. A company registration proves the business exists. For cut orchid flowers, a Department of Agriculture exporter number is compulsory and printed on every box. For live plants, the proof is the CITES permit and the nursery behind it.

The cut flower rule comes from Thailand's Department of Foreign Trade, which states that anyone exporting orchid flowers must be registered with the Department of Agriculture as an orchid flower exporter, with the exporter's name and registration number printed in English on each container. Thai Customs releases cut orchids only for exporters on the list the Department of Agriculture sends it. Personal, non-commercial and reasonable sample shipments are outside the rule.

Sources: Department of Foreign Trade, Thailand; Plant Quarantine Act B.E. 2507, as amended; Thai government service portal, thailand.go.th.

Membership of the Thai Orchid Exporters Association is a signal, not a certificate: the association publishes no member check. Nursery registration for export is also not a licence to trade. Thailand's Plant Quarantine Act describes it as a service a grower requests "To facilitate plant growers for the purpose of exportation".

What documents should an exporter show before a deposit is paid?

A redacted copy of a recent CITES export permit, a sample phytosanitary certificate that can be checked on its face, the evidence of where the plants were grown, and a draft invoice with scientific names and quantities. An exporter who ships orchids regularly has all four on file.

The phytosanitary certificate is the easiest to authenticate. Thailand's Department of Agriculture told the international plant protection network how its certificates look since October 2022:

A unique QR code will be added on the top-left corner of the Phytosanitary Certificate which will enable your inspectors to verify the documents more conveniently.

Source: Updated New Format of Thai Phytosanitary Certificate, Department of Agriculture Thailand, International Plant Protection Convention portal, 2022.

The same notice describes the paper and the number: special A4 paper with the watermark "Department of Agriculture Thailand", and a ten-digit number in the form TH followed by the Buddhist year, the month and a six-digit serial. A recent certificate without the QR code, or with a number in another format, is not a genuine current document. The paperwork a live plant needs to leave Thailand is explained in the guide on exporting live plants from Thailand.

The invoice matters for the buyer's own customs. The US Department of Agriculture asks for "An invoice or packing list that clearly states the scientific name(s) and quantity of plants and/or seeds", and the CITES hybrid exemption depends on the invoice too.

Why is a phytosanitary certificate not enough for orchids from Thailand?

Because almost every orchid is listed under CITES, and Thailand does not use its phytosanitary certificate as a CITES document. An orchid plant outside the CITES exemptions needs a separate Thai CITES export permit, issued by the Department of Agriculture against proof of where the plants were grown.

The CITES Secretariat keeps the list of countries whose phytosanitary certificates can stand in for a CITES permit on nursery-grown plants:

the Parties listed below have informed the Secretariat that they use phytosanitary certificates as certificates to authorize the export of artificially propagated specimens of Appendix-II plant species.

Source: Exemptions and special procedures, CITES Secretariat.

Thailand is not on that list. The Thai CITES permit for plants comes from the Department of Agriculture's Office of Plant Varieties Protection, on Form Por Por 13, for a fee of 100 baht per permit. The plants must come from a registered nursery or have documented origin:

The endangered plants to be exported must originate from a registered endangered plant nursery under the Department of Agriculture, or there must be evidence demonstrating the source of the endangered plants.

Source: Procedure for obtaining an export permit for endangered plants and plant residues, thailand.go.th.

That requirement is the buyer's protection against wild-collected plants. A nursery that cannot show a registration certificate or sales certificate for its stock cannot obtain the permit.

Does an order of orchid hybrids need CITES documents?

Not if the order meets the CITES hybrid exemption. Nursery-grown hybrids of Cymbidium, Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis and Vanda are outside CITES when shipped either 20 or more of the same hybrid per container, without flowers, or in flower and packed for retail sale. Anything else needs a CITES permit.

The rule sits in the CITES Appendices valid from 5 March 2026. For plants without flowers:

b) i) when shipped in non-flowering state, the specimens must be traded in shipments consisting of individual containers (such as cartons, boxes, crates or individual shelves of CC-containers) each containing 20 or more plants of the same hybrid; the plants within each container must exhibit a high degree of uniformity and healthiness; and the shipment must be accompanied by documentation, such as an invoice, which clearly states the number of plants of each hybrid;

Source: CITES Appendices I, II and III, footnote P3, valid from 5 March 2026, CITES Secretariat.

Plants in flower need "at least one fully open flower per specimen" and professional processing for retail sale, which means labels and packaging. The same footnote closes the door on borderline cases: "Plants not clearly qualifying for the exemption must be accompanied by appropriate CITES documents." Species orchids are never covered by it, and neither is a carton that mixes ten plants each of several hybrids.

Source: CITES Appendices, footnote P3 and annotation 4, valid from 5 March 2026.

Mokara and Aranda matter here because they are Thai export staples. Thailand's Department of Agriculture ranks Dendrobium first among Thai orchid exports, followed by Oncidium, Mokara, Vanda and Aranda, and three of those five genera fall outside the hybrid exemption.

Does the buyer need a CITES import permit at home?

It depends on the country. Buyers in the European Union and the United Kingdom need a CITES import permit from their own authority for orchids not exempt. Buyers in the USA, Canada and Hong Kong do not, as long as the Thai CITES export permit travels with the plants.

The CITES baseline for Appendix II, where almost all orchids sit, leaves stricter rules to each country: "No import permit is needed unless required by national law." The European Union is the main case of a stricter national law:

The introduction into the Community of specimens of the species listed in Annex B shall be subject to completion of the necessary checks and the prior presentation, at the border customs office at the point of introduction, of an import permit issued by a management authority of the Member State of destination.

Source: Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97, Article 4(2), consolidated 29 June 2026, EUR-Lex.

Sources: CITES Secretariat; EUR-Lex; UK Government; Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Singapore Statutes Online; Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Hong Kong.

In the USA, CITES-listed plants must also enter through a designated port. The US side, from the import permit to who carries the risk, is covered in the guide on sending plants from Thailand to US buyers.

How should a first order from a new exporter be structured?

Small, but not below the exemption by accident. Non-flowering hybrids need 20 plants of one hybrid per carton to travel without CITES documents, so five mixed plants need a permit. A smaller first order can use flowering, retail-packed plants, or carry the CITES permit and its 100 baht fee.

US buyers have one more threshold. The US Department of Agriculture lists "Shipments of 12 or fewer plants, only if no specific restriction applies" among the cases that may need no import permit, confirmed through its online permit system, but the CITES rules for orchids still apply. A first order of cut flowers is simpler: nursery-grown cut orchids are outside CITES, and only the exporter registration and the phytosanitary certificate apply.

Payment terms are a commercial matter. No Thai or international rule sets deposits or payment schedules for orchid orders, so the documents above are the only independent check a buyer has before money moves.

How Dragon Courier handles orchid shipments

Dragon Courier holds an import permit for each plant market it serves and arranges the paperwork in Bangkok. For the USA, the phytosanitary certificate and the CITES documents are free of charge, and an importer of record service is available for US buyers who do not hold their own permit.

Plant service rates, Dragon Courier. The USA plant rate starts at 1,458 THB for 0.5 kg and is 5,120 THB for 5 kg, duty paid. Packing is left to the nursery, which knows its plants best. Insurance is not available for live plants. The three forms an orchid can travel in, flask, bare root plant and cut flower, are compared in the guide on orchid export from Thailand.

About Dragon Courier

Dragon Courier is a Bangkok courier, family owned, with more than 30 years in logistics in Thailand and more than 20,000 shipments a month to over 200 destinations. It is the number one exporter of live plants in Thailand, with plant markets in the USA, Canada, Europe, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Contacts and drop-off

The genus, the number of plants per hybrid and the destination are enough to tell which documents an order needs. Office +66 2656 9019, Justin is on LINE and WhatsApp at +66 6-5937-0812, or info@dragoncourier.com. Drop-off runs until 17:00, Monday to Saturday, at the Bangkok office on Sukhumvit Soi 4 (217/3 Crystal Garden Building, 3rd floor, Klongtoey 10110) or the Chiang Mai office on Viangbua Road, and a pickup can be arranged at the nursery for a date and time that suits. How many plants of each hybrid are on the order?