Hoodia in Australia - Customs Seizes Hoodia Diet Pills Ordered Online

If you live in Australia and are considering buying hoodia diet pills online from another country, you might want to think again. The Australian Customs Service issued a warning that over 100 packages of hoodia products are being intercepted each month with over 2,500 packages having been seized already.

The reason for the seizures is due to the tight restrictions on the commercial trade of hoodia gordonii. The plant can only be imported accompanied by a CITES certificate. Without one, any products containing hoodia are considered contraband by Australian Customs and are seized.

Customs’ Karen Williams said, “It appears most, if not all, of these mail packages have been ordered over the internet and no permission has been given to allow the products into Australia.” She continued, “Customs has no alternative but to seize them and it is likely that eventually they will be destroyed.”

Of the two brands I currently recommend on my best rated hoodia page, only Hoodoba ships to Australia. I contacted Hoodoba to ask them about this issue. The person I spoke with said they were aware of Australian Customs clamping down on hoodia packages entering their country. The Hoodoba representative said they try to warn people who order their product from Australia that there is a high probability that their order will be seized by customs.

I got an email from a visitor to this website who lives in Australia and placed an order with Hoodoba. She didn’t hear about this customs issue until after she placed her order and she was concerned she wouldn’t get her package. Surprisingly, not only did her order arrive without any problems, but it arrived within a few days of placing her order!

I asked my Hoodoba representative about this and she said that it seems to be hit or miss. Some of their packages get through customs without any problems while some are seized. She said Australian customers ordering from them shouldn’t assume that they’ll get their package so it can be somewhat risky.

I’ve been looking for an alternative to Hoodoba for Australian customers interested in hoodia diet pills and I have only been able to find one. A company called Manitou Imports is based in Australia and sells hoodia diet pills through their OzHoodia website. Since their product is sold within the country, Australian customers don’t have to worry about customs. My only concern about the company is the authenticity of the product.

I always stress two things when someone is looking to buy hoodia - make sure a CITES certificate is displayed on the website and look for independent lab test results that prove the product is authentic. Neither one of these are displayed on the Manitou Imports website - or the OzHoodia website.

I talked to Brent, the owner of Manitou Imports, and he assured me that his product is 100% authentic. He said the reason they don’t display a CITES certificate is because the company he buys the raw hoodia from doesn’t want their CITES certificate displayed. As far as independent lab testing is concerned, he said he never thought of it before and that he might consider it in the future. Brent said that if anyone has any concerns about the authenticity of his product they can “grill him” via email and he’ll be more than happy to reply with detailed responses to reassure them. His email is found on their website.

Brent seemed like an honest and straight forward person and it is very likely that his product is authentic, but I cannot recommend it with complete confidence. His product is probably the real deal but without a CITES certificate and independent lab test results it’s just “his word.” That’s simply not enough for me to give his product a strong recommendation.

The only recommendation I can give is that Manitou Imports is definitely worth looking into if you are worried about having your hoodia packages seized by Australian Customs. So far their product seems to be the best alternative to Hoodoba.

If you know of any company selling authentic hoodia products in Australia, please contact me and I’ll look into it and post it on this website!

Sources: The West Australian