You can buy a Brit a pint from Sydney. You cannot post them a swede.
Cross-border gifting, and the difference between the things that travel, the things that travel with paperwork, and the things that are simply not allowed to cross a border in a parcel however much anybody would like them to.
The three categories, plainly.
| Category | Examples | Can it cross a border? |
|---|---|---|
| Buy from abroad, deliver in the UK | A hamper, a box, a patch, a membership, a pint at the pub | Yes. Everything here works, because nothing crosses a border |
| Send from the UK to abroad — dry goods | A tea towel, a mug, a print, a book | Usually, with a customs declaration and duty for the recipient |
| Send from the UK to abroad — food and drink | Jam, honey, cheese, ham, beer, gin, a swede | Almost never. This is the whole content of this page |
What can and cannot cross a border, and why.
Five rules, none of which is ours, and all of which get blamed on us at least once a December.
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Alcohol is duty, not policy
Excise duty is charged where the alcohol is consumed, not where it was made. Sending a case of lager from here to a private address abroad means either paying duty in the destination country or breaking its law, and the paperwork for doing it properly is an importer’s job rather than a farm shop’s.
Several countries also prohibit alcohol arriving by post to a private individual outright, regardless of duty. So we do not ship alcohol outside the UK at all, from this site or otherwise.
Hawkstone reaches ten European countries through distributors. That is the honest route and the stockist finder is where it lives.
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Meat, dairy and honey are biosecurity, not paperwork
Since 2021 personal consignments of meat and dairy products from Great Britain into the European Union have been prohibited. Not restricted, not dutiable — prohibited, and seized at the border.
That covers the cheese truckle, the ham, the sausages and, depending on the destination, the honey. There is no form that fixes it and no courier who will pretend otherwise for long.
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Fresh produce is somebody else’s ecosystem
Australia and New Zealand run the strictest biosecurity regimes in the world and they are entirely right to. A swede posted to Sydney is a soil-borne pathogen risk arriving in an envelope, and it will be destroyed at the airport.
The same applies to seeds, plants, cut flowers and anything with soil on it. It is not bureaucracy. It is a country protecting an agricultural sector worth rather more than your present.
You cannot post a swede to Sydney. It is on this page because somebody genuinely tried.
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Dry goods travel, with a declaration
A tea towel, a mug, a print or a book goes almost anywhere with a customs declaration on the outside and a commodity code on the form. The recipient may pay import duty and a handling fee, and on a twelve-pound tea towel the handling fee is frequently more than the tea towel.
We show the estimated duty before you pay rather than after they receive it, which is the only decent way to sell something across a border.
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And a gift card always works
Because nothing physical moves. Buy it from anywhere, send it to a British email address, and the recipient orders whatever they like to a British address with no customs anywhere in the transaction.
It is the least imaginative answer on this page and it is the right one about eight times out of ten for somebody buying from overseas.
What we will and will not send where.
| To | Dry goods | Food | Alcohol |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anywhere in the UK | Yes | Yes | Yes, age-checked at the door |
| Ireland and the EU | Yes, with a declaration | No. Meat and dairy prohibited | No |
| United States | Yes, with a declaration | No | No |
| Australia and New Zealand | Yes, with a declaration | No | No |
| Anywhere else | Case by case | No | No |
Buying from overseas for somebody in Britain.
Use any card, from anywhere
In a live build. Nothing on this site takes payment.
Give a British delivery address
Or do not, and gift it instead so the recipient supplies their own.
Nothing crosses a border
Which means no duty, no declaration and no seizure risk on anything.
Times are British
A delivery date you choose is a British date, which catches out about one buyer in ten.
Age checks apply to them, not you
The driver cards the person at the door. Where you were standing when you paid is irrelevant.
From abroad, questioned.
Yes, easily. Nothing crosses a border; he is carded at the door in Leeds. This is the case people assume is hard and it is the easy one.
No. Personal consignments of certain foods from Great Britain into the EU are prohibited, and jam is a border-by-border question we will not guess at.
Because a gift declaration affects duty thresholds, not prohibitions. A prohibited item is prohibited whether or not it is a present.
It is destroyed, and nobody is refunded by anybody. Which is why we would rather refuse the order than take your money for it.
The thing that always works.
An IOU with a farm on it, redeemable by somebody who lives here.
Elsewhere on the estate.
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