(1) BUY OFF AN AUSTRALIAN SITE WHO SPECIALISE IN SENDING AUSTRALIAN GIFTS INTERNATIONALLY

There are plenty of options out there to do this. You want to make sure you’re using a company who knows their way around international customs, laws and regulations, so you can make sure your gift arrives safely and there are no surprises when it comes to taxes and duties that need to be paid on the gift.

Here at I Still Call Australia Home, we have negotiated rates with DHL Express so can get your gift-wrapped chocolates overseas fast and hassle free. When a gift is not stopped by Customs (see here for more info on overseas delivery), gifts take an average of 2-6 working days to get delivered overseas.

With us, it’s even cheaper and faster than sending standard airmail with Australia post! (not to mention you’ll avoid all the hassle of gift wrapping, box packaging and queueing in line for ages at a local Australia post office). [see here for detail on comparison costs of sending Australian gifts overseas]

Make it easy on yourself! Click above for express shipment overseas and gift-wrapped products from a specialist in sending Aussie treats overseas including:

– Cherry Ripe Treat Pack sent overseas

– Send Tim Tams overseas

– Send cute Koala chocolates overseas

– Browse the best Australian made gifts to send overseas

– Send Picnic Chocolate bars overseas

(2) BUY OFF A LOCAL SITE IN THE COUNTRY YOU WANT TO SEND TO

This is another option. The benefits are you never have to worry about customs, however you will probably not have access to a wide range (or latest) products and each item will attract a premium cost. Also – generally there will be nothing unique about these gifts or authentically Australian.

If you want to support Australian companies who create unique Australian product, then we don’t recommend this option, but instead recommend Option 1. above!

3. HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF

If only sending chocolate overseas was as easy as buying the chocolate from the supermarket, packaging it up, going to your local Australia post shop and sending it!

There are a few more steps than that.

The steps for sending Australian chocolate overseas are:

1. Buy the chocolate from the supermarket (tick – I think we can all manage that one)
2. Get your packaging right – you need to make sure the packaging for the chocolate is appropriate which means
   • You gift wrap the chocolate
   • You should put the chocolate in a a cardboard box to send it in order to avoid damage
     • Ideally this box should be as small as possible, because most international freight carriers will charge postage based on weight and/or dimensional weight (i.e. the size of your box) – whichever costs omre.
   • Additionally it’s important the chocolate gift fits well in the box you’ve bought and doesn’t jiggle around on the way. As there’ll be lots of movement when a gift box is delivered overseas! This is called the “shred” or “fillers” or “void fillers” you use to wrap the package
     • We suggest wood wool – this is the prettiest type of packaging and is what we generally use! It’s hard to find it in small quantities so you might have to buy the 1kg bag and save some for later
     • You can also use bubble wrap – available at most Australia Post offices
     • Or some other void fill – such as brown paper or even newspaper will do the trick
3. Check the country you are sending to allows food / chocolate to be sent to it.
   • We recommend the Australia Post International Shipping guide of prohibited and restricted items. Although it doesn’t tell you what you can send, it certainly tells you what you can’t! So make sure chocolate is not on this list for the country you wish to send to.
4. Fill in your customs form which needs to state value, each individual product that’s in the gift, the weight of the gift and the country of manufacture
   • If you are sending your chocolate overseas via Australia Post, they will gift you the customs form – make sure you mark it as a ‘gift only’
   • If you are sending via a courier, they usually have their own form of invoice. It’s best to use the template they gift you as this will have all the information they need clearly stated. On top of that, you should also mark your parcel and paperwork clearly as a “gift only”.
5. Choose whether you are going to send it via Australia Post or with a courier, and if you will send it express or standard.
   • When you send with a courier, your parcel will incur taxes and duties payable 100% of the time (if the country you are sending to charges these). You will need to make sure you instruct the courier company to charge these to you if this is the case.
   • When you send with Australia Post, you may or may not be charged these duties. This is because they only get charged if the gift gets stopped in customs (experts say this is 2-8% of gifts that get stopped). If this is the case, there is no way to charge these back to you and the recipient will have to pay the charges. Yes, even though it’s a gift. See more here on international shipping and charges. Even thought it’s written for the UK, you can apply the logic to any country.
6. Pay for tracking
   • We recommend you pay for tracking of your gift door to door. Courier companies do this extremely well and generally it is part of their service. Australia post usually charge for this service.
   • Either way, it is an excellent investment to make sure you have peace of mind that your gift has arrived safely overseas

FURTHER LINKS TO OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

• Can I send chocolate overseas to USA? UK? Canada? 
• 6 biggest mistakes I made sending Australian chocolate overseas and how to avoid them
• How to send a gift from Australia to the UK without paying taxes and duties
• 4 Biggest Mistakes Australians make when sending a gift to USA and how to avoid them
• Our Australian gifts we send to the UK , USA, and Canada and our International Delivery Policy
• Detail on what you can send to each country is given here by Australia Post
• Detail on rules on what wine can be sent from Australia to each country is here
• How to avoid mistakes made when sending Australian gifts overseas
• How to send an Australian gift to India
• Postage costs from Australia to the UK
• UK Taxes and duties on gifts and the 4 Most Common Mistakes Aussies make when sending presents to England
• Details on sending an Aussie gift to France and our presents we send to France