Ordering spores across Africa: shipping, customs and payment

The short answer

Buyers across Africa can order on Culture Cave from any vendor whose store lists Africa as a shipping region. The closest is CB Shroomy, a vendor based in South Africa who ships across the continent by DHL Express. Several vendors in the United States and Australia list Africa too. You choose your country at checkout, pay the vendor by card, and any import duty or VAT in your country is paid to the courier on delivery. The Africa page lists every store that currently ships to you.

Which vendors ship to Africa

At the time of writing, the stores listing Africa as a region are CB Shroomy in South Africa; Fungus Frequency, Moondaddy, Sonoran Spores, Telly Monster Myco and Mr Rogers Labz in the United States; and What The Fungi in Australia. Vendors change their shipping regions from time to time, so the store page is always the final word.

Ordering from a South African vendor

For buyers in Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi, a South African store is the nearest option by a long way. It is still far closer than the USA or Europe for buyers in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. Shorter distance means fewer transit hubs, less time in a hot depot and fewer chances for a parcel to go astray.

CB Shroomy's Africa option is listed as tracked DHL Express to your door, usually 4 to 7 working days, with any import duty or VAT in your country paid to DHL on delivery. The current price appears in the cart once you set your delivery region to Africa. The store's dispatch note reads "1 to 3 day lead time", which is how long the vendor needs before the parcel is handed to DHL.

Ordering from the USA, UK or Australia

Overseas vendors bring much larger libraries and rare lines you will not find closer to home. The parcel travels further, often through more than one hub, and each vendor chooses its own carrier and price for the Africa region. Read the shipping section of each store, and message the vendor before ordering if you are not sure they can reach your country.

Picking your country at checkout

Culture Cave buyers choose a delivery region in the cart rather than a country. Set it to Africa and only stores that ship there will offer you delivery. At checkout you then pick your own country from a list of African countries, so the vendor's courier label carries the right destination.

Give a full street address that a courier can find, including any building name, suburb and landmark that local drivers use. Express couriers deliver to a door, not a post office box, so a box number alone is likely to cause delays.

Paying by card in rand

CB Shroomy takes payments through PayFast, a South African payment gateway that accepts Visa and Mastercard cards issued in any country. The charge is in South African rand, so your bank converts it to your own currency at its rate and may add a foreign transaction fee. Overseas vendors use their own payment methods, shown at checkout. In every case you pay the vendor directly; Culture Cave never holds the money.

Customs, duty and VAT

Any parcel that crosses a border can be inspected and taxed by the destination country. Thresholds and rates differ everywhere, so a small order that arrives with nothing to pay in one country may be charged in the next. Morocco, for example, charges duty on online orders, so Moroccan buyers should expect a bill. Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya each run their own import rules too.

With DHL Express, the courier normally contacts you to pay any duty or VAT before or at delivery. Plan for it in your budget. A parcel refused because of a duty bill is not simply sent on later: it may be returned to the vendor at extra cost, or held by customs.

Honest customs descriptions

Vendors describe the contents and value of a parcel truthfully on the customs declaration. Do not ask a vendor to mislabel a parcel or declare a lower value. False declarations are an offence in most countries, they get parcels seized, and a good vendor will refuse anyway.

Why dry spore formats make sense abroad

Spore prints and swabs are dry, flat, light and tolerant of a long journey in a warm van. Spore syringes are liquid: they can leak, they dislike heat, and over a long trip they spend days in conditions nobody controls. That is why spore products are the sensible order for buyers outside South Africa, and why prints and swabs are the first choice. The post on which spore format travels best compares them in detail.

For microscopy, buyers abroad often start with a classic Psilocybe cubensis line such as Golden Teacher or B+, or with species that have African roots: Psilocybe natalensis, described from KwaZulu-Natal, and Psilocybe ochraceocentrata, which vendors describe as an African landrace. Panaeolus cyanescens, a separate genus with a jet black print, has also been recorded in parts of Africa. The strain library shows which vendors carry each one.

Ask before ordering live cultures, plates or grain

Live cultures, colonised agar plates and sterilised grain are perishable, and in many countries they count as biological material that may need an import permit. Heat and customs delays can ruin them before they arrive. Message the vendor before ordering any of these from outside South Africa, whichever store it is. Lab hardware such as petri dishes, parafilm and scalpel blades is a different matter; the South African lab supplies page shows what the local store lists.

The law varies across Africa

Africa has more than fifty countries and more than fifty sets of rules. Many control psilocybin and psilocin, and some restrict the import of any biological sample. Spores contain neither compound, but that does not make them lawful to import everywhere. Psilocybe and Panaeolus spores on Culture Cave are sold for microscopy and taxonomy use only, and buyers must know their local law before ordering. Nothing in this post is legal advice; if you are unsure, check with your country's customs or health authority first.

A checklist before you order

1. Open the store page and confirm Africa is in its shipping regions.
2. Set your cart region to Africa and check the delivery option and price shown.
3. Choose dry formats (prints or swabs) unless the vendor has agreed otherwise.
4. Pick your country at checkout and give a full street address.
5. Budget for duty or VAT on delivery and keep your phone on for the courier.

South African buyers have more options again, including domestic delivery; see the South Africa page and the guide to buying spores in South Africa.