Importing Indonesian Tropical Plants
to South Korea.
A regulatory and logistical roadmap for Korean plant shops, aroid sellers and commercial nurseries importing live flora from Indonesia. South Korea has no general advance import permit for non-prohibited plants for planting, but it enforces two rules that decide whether a consignment moves at all: soil and plants with adhering soil are prohibited articles, and the plants must be inspected at the airport where they first land. This page sets out what has to be true before dispatch, what happens at Incheon, and what the import actually costs.
No general permit for non-prohibited nursery stock; the Article 10(2) permission exists only for prohibited articles
Art. 10(1) prohibits soil and plants with soil adhering; organic media and residue are treated the same way
Inspection is at the first port of landing; Incheon takes most commercial live-plant air freight
8% basic duty, 0% under AKFTA with Form AK; APQA inspection itself is free of charge
What the Korean importer must have in place before dispatch
1. An admissibility check, not an import permit. South Korea does not issue a general advance plant import permit for non-prohibited plants for planting. Article 10(1) of the Plant Protection Act sets out the prohibited articles, and Article 10(2) allows a prohibited article to be imported only with permission from the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. That permission is the only permit the system contains. What the buyer must do instead is confirm each genus and species against the APQAPlant Quarantine Information System (PQIS), entering Indonesia as the country of origin and nursery stock for planting as the import part. Species or origins never previously imported are subject to a bilateral pest risk analysis under Article 6.
2. A phytosanitary certificate from Barantan. Article 8(1) requires an official certificate from the exporting country's plant protection organisation, issued to the IPPC standard. For Indonesian consignments that is Barantan, Badan Karantina Indonesia. APQA exchanges electronic certificates through the IPPC ePhyto Hub into PQIS, so an ePhyto transmitted directly from Barantan is accepted. The Article 8(3) exemption is limited to minute non-commercial quantities with prior APQA approval and does not reach commercial cargo.
3. A genuinely bare-root preparation. Soil and plants with soil adhering to them are prohibited articles under Article 10(1), and organic growing media and organic residue are treated the same way. No peat, coco peat or organic bark may travel with the roots. This is a documentary risk as much as a physical one: a certificate that describes a growing medium invites a laboratory check, and residue found at inspection leads to disposal or return. Foliaria ships every consignment bare-root with no planting medium.
4. A CITES import permit, if the line is a listed taxon. Orchids, cacti, cycads and certain euphorbias fall under Appendix II. The Korean permit, the 국제적 멸종위기종 수입허가서, is issued by the competent Regional Environmental Office under Article 16(1) of the Wildlife Protection and Management Act and must be in place before the customs import declaration is accepted. Foliaria supplies the matching Indonesian export permit from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for artificially propagated plants.
5. The importer of record and its customs broker. The buyer is the importer of record. The import declaration and quarantine inspection application are filed electronically through UNI-PASS, which interfaces with PQIS, and the customs declaration carries the duty and VAT position. If a preferential rate is claimed, the Certificate of Origin Form AK is part of the declaration package. Foliaria supplies the certificate, the commercial invoice and the packing manifest from the origin side.
The clearance sequence, order by order
Two of these steps cannot be recovered if they are missed: the soil check and the first-port inspection.
Before ordering — PQIS admissibility and CITES status
The buyer checks the target taxa in PQIS against Indonesian origin and nursery stock for planting, and confirms whether the line is CITES-listed. Foliaria runs the same check against the APQA prohibited list before quoting. Where APQA has designated a line for post-entry isolation cultivation, the plants must complete it in a national quarantine nursery or an approved private facility under Article 13 and Article 21 of the enforcement rule, which moves the delivery date.
Before dispatch — Barantan inspection and phytosanitary certificate
The consignment is registered on the Indonesian quarantine portal, inspected at the regional station for soil, pests and decay, and only then certified. The certificate is issued in line with the IPPC and transmitted as an ePhyto where the issuing station supports it. No growing medium of any kind is packed with the roots.
Before landing — import declaration and inspection application
The importer or a registered plant quarantine agent files the import declaration and quarantine inspection application through UNI-PASS, which interfaces with PQIS. Filing can be made once the air waybill and certificate details exist, up to 24 to 48 hours before touchdown. Late filing does not create an inland option; it only delays the aircraft-side handling.
On arrival — inspection at the first port, not inland
Article 12(1) requires the importer to file the declaration without delay with the head of the plant quarantine agency at the port of first arrival and to have the consignment inspected there. The Article 12(2) exception for inspection at an inland container depot covers articles other than plants for planting or propagation, so it does not apply to this cargo. Inspection takes place in the airport bonded warehouse, with laboratory testing where it is triggered: 3 business days for nematode extraction and up to 7 business days for fungal or entomological diagnostics.
Customs clearance — UNI-PASS, duty and VAT
Once APQA issues the import quarantine certificate, the broker lodges the import declaration through UNI-PASS. The basic rate for the relevant HS 0602.90 lines is 8.0% ad valorem; a Certificate of Origin Form AK issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Trade supports the 0% AKFTA rate for qualifying lines, and an RCEP certificate or approved exporter declaration is the alternative. VAT is charged at the standard 10% on the CIF value plus duty and other statutory import taxes, and cannot be reduced by origin. Customs issues the import release separately from the plant quarantine certificate.
Release and inland delivery
The consignment leaves the bonded warehouse only after plant quarantine clearance and customs release. Transporting uninspected plants in violation of Article 12(1) draws an administrative fine not exceeding KRW 10,000,000 under Article 50(1) Subparagraph 1, which is why the inspection is not a step that can be deferred until the plants reach the buyer. APQA's statutory inspection itself carries no fee.
Taxa Foliaria does not ship into South Korea
A page that only lists what can be shipped is marketing. These are the categories that are closed, restricted, or conditional — check them before you build a range around a species.
Soil and organic growing media — absolutely prohibited. Article 10(1) of the Plant Protection Act prohibits soil and plants with soil adhering thereto. APQA treats organic growing media and adhering organic residue in the same category, so peat moss, coco peat and organic bark are not a grey area to be argued at the inspection bench. A consignment found with organic residue is subject to disposal or return under Article 16(1). Every Foliaria consignment to Korea is bare-root and packed without any medium.
Solanaceae nursery stock — closed where the listed pests occur. Cuttings, tubers and nursery stock of Solanum species, including potato, tomato, pepper and eggplant material, are prohibited from regions infested with Potato Andean latent virus, Potato mop-top, Synchytrium endobioticum or Globodera cyst nematodes. The list is maintained in Attached Table 1 of the enforcement rule and in APQA emergency import restrictions.
Rosaceae nursery stock — closed where fire blight occurs. Malus, Pyrus, Chaenomeles, Crataegus, Cydonia, Pyracantha and Sorbus planting material is prohibited from countries where Erwinia amylovora occurs. Host plants of Xylella fastidiosa from declared infested regions are barred or require pre-clearance, which is why admissibility is confirmed per species and per origin rather than per family.
Invasive species and prohibited weeds — closed. Species designated as invasive alien weeds under APQA notifications and Ministry of Environment biodiversity rules cannot be imported as planting material. The consolidated reference is PQIS, not a supplier's catalogue.
How this is handled in practice. The export desk checks every line against PQIS for Indonesian origin before the invoice is issued and says so plainly when a species cannot be shipped. If a variety is restricted, the alternative is a documented substitute agreed with the importer — never a silent substitution at packing.
CITES: the one permit that must exist before customs clearance
South Korea enforces CITES through the Wildlife Protection and Management Act. Commercial trade in Appendix I species is prohibited. For Appendix II species such as orchids, cacti, cycads and certain euphorbias, Article 16(1) of the Act creates a dual-permit requirement: an Indonesian export permit from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which must show the plants as artificially propagated, and a Korean import permit issued by the competent Regional Environmental Office under Article 16(1).
The Korean permit must be applied for and issued before the customs import declaration is accepted, and processing typically takes 7 to 10 business days. Applications are lodged through the Ministry of Environment's e-Civil Service portal or Government 24 with a copy of the Indonesian export permit attached. Consignments arriving at Incheon are handled by the Han River Basin Environmental Office and those at Gimhae by the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office.
In practice the CITES clock runs in parallel with the phytosanitary work, not after it. Foliaria separates listed and non-listed taxa in the packing list so a single orchid line does not hold up the inspection of the rest of the consignment.
The gateway decides where the plants are inspected
APQA plant quarantine offices operate at Incheon (ICN), Gimpo (GMP), Gimhae for Busan (PUS), Jeju (CJU) and Daegu (TAE). Incheon handles the large majority of commercial live-plant air freight through its regional headquarters at Cargo Terminals 1 and 2, and it is the practical default for a first consignment from East Java. Air transit is a 4 to 6 day carrier estimate, before inspection and customs queues.
Because Article 12 ties inspection to the first port of arrival, there is no routing trick that moves the inspection inland. A consignment booked to Incheon is inspected at Incheon, and one booked to Busan is inspected at Gimhae. Choosing a different gateway changes the queue and the onward domestic leg, not the obligation. The Article 12(2) inland-depot exception is expressly limited to articles other than plants for planting or propagation.
Inspection hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00 KST, and after-hours inspection for perishable air cargo is available on advance written or electronic application. A weekend arrival without that arrangement falls outside the standard window, which matters when the plants have already spent days in transit. Customs is a separate release through UNI-PASS: plant quarantine clearance does not clear the goods for duty and VAT purposes, and the two processes run in parallel rather than in sequence.
South Korean Import Questions, Answered
Do I need an import permit to import plants from Indonesia into South Korea?↓
Can plants be shipped in soil or with organic growing media?↓
Is a phytosanitary certificate required for every consignment?↓
Where is the consignment inspected, and can it be moved inland first?↓
Which airports accept plant cargo into South Korea?↓
What tax and duty apply to imported live plants?↓
Do I need a CITES permit for Korean imports?↓
How long does air transit and clearance take?↓
Ready to Import into South Korea?
Review our wholesale export catalog of Indonesian tropical houseplants and rare aroids. We confirm taxon admissibility against APQA's PQIS for Indonesian origin before an invoice is issued, and we pack strictly bare-root. Minimum wholesale consignment is 20 plants.