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Old 01/08/2008, 12:47 PM
SPStoner SPStoner is offline
2007 Eastern Conf. Champs
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Madison,OH
Posts: 1,348
Quote:
Originally posted by 250G
Perhaps this is the reason that essentially all aussie pieces imported to Canada are no longer available to the Canadian hobbyist, they are simply re-exported to the US. Disconcerting for local, long-term Canadian hobbiests to see this occur, but this is a business after all.

If it means anything, in the US you can buy these re-exported aussie-canadian acans cheaper than we can in Canada before they are re-exported.
Hey Dave! Long time. I owe you a phone call.

I didn't realize this was happening also. I shouldn't be surprised as I was aware of several US busineses doing this for other non-Aussie corals before. So, are you saying that these places get in say 100 pieces and all of them go to the States? Or, just the choice stuff?


PauChi- I am not sure what you mean by minimal, but my business ships things to and from Australia / New Zealand on a daily basis. Going on a per kilo basis, the costs to/from Los Angeles to Australia on average are about 30% more than say Fiji. 30% is 30%. You can average it out per piece, but the importers are paying by weight, and they pay it whether the piece lives or arrives dead. Factor in the cost of any DOA corals, and the cost is pretty substantial. Not saying that this justifies the extreme price of some of these, but it does partly explain. Also, I am not sure what, if any, duties are charged on livestock.

As stated by others, this is a free market economy. This is the same reason that a Queen Angel is $140 in our pet store, but $12,000 in Japan! It is what people are willing to pay.
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