Starting to Import wine into the US

Hello everyone,
I am a spaniard living in florida and I was wondering if there is anyone out there that knows the exact process to start importing wine from spain. I dont event know what licenses I need or forms to fill out. I went to some web sites and it was overwhelming.

Can someone recommend what the best steps are?...forms, average costs to get all the paper work done..basically everything to be set to start shipping wine. I want to start small, possibly 1 or 2...
I hope some one can help!
Best Regards,
Tony

Hi & welcome to this side of Verema. Unfortunately I can’t help you, I just drink wine, I do neither import nor export ;)
Anyway, in the spanish side there’re some people who manage their own wineries and they do export wines to USA, so maybe they can help you.

Regards,

Jose

Welcome to Verema. Let’s see, if toy already have chosen which wines to import then you must contact the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX)… this is the easiest way to learn how to import any product from Spain. The ICEX has a specific web-page with information about Spanish Wines…: http://www.winesfromspain.com

Cheers!

Welcome Nimbush, I don´t think that ICEX could be so useful, but anyway try . The most important thing to do is in the other side, in the States, in how to get the importer licences ,taxes to pay ,laws ...
If you need information about cost of a container from Spain to Miami I’ll give you.

I have forgotten what the website in the states is the one to which you need to refer, but I will try and send it tomorrow. Like someone else said, it isn’t really about the paperwork on the Spanish side, it is really about the USA side--importers license, taxes, etc but once that is all done and you are about to import, you will need to get label approval for each wine that you bring in. Please note that this can sometimes take awhile and working with the winery if something needs to be changed on the label.

Thanks for the reply calisto.
I actually was looking around some more and it says that in order to get an importer’s basic license you need a letter on intent from a wine producer/supplier in Spain. I would like to to know the cost for a container from Spain to Miami, also, how much does it hold? Thanks you so much, you can also write to me privately at nimbushtony@hotmail.com
Talk to you soon.

O.K nimbush, but I prefer to answer by verema . Well , first of all there are two types of container : 20 feet and 40 feet (and 40 feet high cube, basically is the same price). 20"; costs around 1.500 USD,and 40"; around 2.400 USD. These prices are including the following items: Handling in origin , terminal handling charges , customs entry services and tax of ";security nation";(somethig like that). After that, you should add the tax of the merchandise(wine)and the transport to your wharehouse.

Another question was about the time of delivery , this is estimative because depends of the shipping company , but about 12 or 15 days. Anyway if you don´t want problems you could ask the wine CIF.

I`d like to have been useful.

Thank you so much for the info! This helps me a lot! Ill keep in touch with you.