Quick summary
Samoa requires every arriving passenger to declare food, plant material, animal products and plant- or animal-based gifts on the arrival card. Commercially packaged meat, dairy, honey, fruit and vegetables are not exempt. Honey and all bee products are banned outright; meat is capped at 10 kg (22 lbs) per person and must come from Australia, New Zealand or the United States.
Biosecurity Samoa can hold, reship or destroy undeclared goods and penalties may apply, but the published travel rules set no fixed on-the-spot fine figure. Here is what officers check at Faleolo, what is banned and how to move through screening cleanly.
On 28 July 2026, Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries restated a rule that catches souvenir shoppers: imported honey and bee products are still banned. Samoa Newshub reported the restatement. For travelers, declaration is not the same as permission to bring an item in.
The rules reach beyond food. Gifts made from plant or animal materials also belong on the passenger arrival card, even when bought in a shop. At Faleolo International Airport, what is in the bag matters more than where it was bought.
The stakes are more than a duty bill. An undeclared item can be taken out of the journey altogether, while prohibited bee products can bring prosecution. The published rules, as they stood in October 2026, give travelers no fixed instant fine to weigh against that risk.
What you must declare on your arrival card
Samoa’s arrival card asks one broad question: are you bringing in food, plant materials, animal products, or gifts made from plant or animal materials? Everything in those four groups must be declared and shown to a quarantine officer. That includes a market mango, a box of herbal tea or a carved wooden bowl. Their value does not change the answer.
Commercially packaged goods are not exempt.
Meat, dairy, honey, fruit and vegetables bought sealed and shrink-wrapped still require declaration when they land in Samoa. The packaging changes what an officer may allow, not whether it belongs on the form.
The ministry’s traveller information factsheet on what arriving passengers must declare sets out the declaration requirements. The arrival card also requires an address in Samoa and a list of every country you have been in during the past 30 days.
Duty-free is a customs question about value; biosecurity is a quarantine question about risk. An item can be duty-free and still prohibited. A jar of duty-free honey is the clearest example.
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What Biosecurity Samoa can do with undeclared items
Under the Quarantine (Biosecurity) Act 2005, Biosecurity Samoa can hold an undeclared item for assessment, reship it, or destroy it. Penalties may also apply. The power covers passengers, cargo, mail and imported goods. It turns on the item’s risk, rather than its price or the intent behind a packing mistake.
For prohibited bee products, the law reaches further. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries states that penalties can include seizure of the goods and prosecution for anyone importing, possessing for sale, or dealing in prohibited bee products.
The Government of Samoa’s biosecurity service pages and the traveller factsheet set out those powers, but give no standard dollar amount of the kind published in some other Pacific jurisdictions. A figure circulating online without a source is unconfirmed.
Fiji’s arrivals desk applies a flat undeclared-food fine, described in how Fiji handles undeclared food at Nadi and Suva. In Samoa, the outcome, including the penalty, rests on an officer’s assessment of the item in front of them.
Honey banned, meat capped at 10 kg
The honey prohibition remains in force under the Bee and Bee Products Prohibition Order 1999 and the Quarantine (Biosecurity) Act 2005. It covers honey, comb honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis, beeswax and other bee-derived products. Goods containing unprocessed bee material that could pose a biosecurity risk are covered too. Importation is allowed only when explicitly authorised under Samoa’s biosecurity legislation.
Declaring a jar does not make it legal.
Meat is allowed, within limits. As of 20 June 2026, passengers’ meat must be commercially prepared and packaged and must still be inspected at the Animal and Plant Quarantine counter on arrival. Meat that is home-smoked or wrapped in a kitchen does not qualify, however honestly it is declared.
Living material has separate rules. Insects, fungi, bacteria, viruses and plant parasitic organisms need a written permit to enter Samoa. The rule applies to researchers, growers and anyone transporting cultures. An entry on the arrival card cannot substitute for the permit.
At Faleolo: screening comes before customs
Arriving passengers at Faleolo International Airport pass through biosecurity screening before customs. Declared food, plants and animal products are examined at the quarantine counter. The conversation cannot be postponed to the duty desk.
Samoa Customs keeps offices at Tuamasaga Street in Apia and at Faleolo International Airport. Its phone contacts are +685 21557 and +685 22343, according to contact details published on 6 October 2026. Those lines handle import and procedure questions.
After screening, the onward run into Apia is a separate negotiation. It is cash only, with the arrangement made before you sit down, as covered in this guide to how taxis from Faleolo to Apia are priced and paid.
Legal basis and the key dates
Samoa’s biosecurity regime rests on the Quarantine (Biosecurity) Act 2005, assented on 2 December 2005 and commenced on 16 January 2006, as published in the text of the Quarantine (Biosecurity) Act 2005. The honey prohibition predates it. The 2005 Act now carries enforcement of the earlier Order.
The Act also gives the Minister power to declare a pest or disease emergency by public notice. The notice sets out affected areas, and the declaration can be revoked later. During a declared emergency, authorities can compel the transfer or use of goods, equipment, land or premises to prevent, eradicate or limit the spread of a pest or disease.
Those powers explain why the rules are broad rather than item by item. They cover both what passengers bring in and the response to a pest or disease threat.
The night before your Faleolo flight
A bag audit the night before is the cheapest fix available: items removed before boarding never reach an officer. Read the ministry’s traveller information factsheet before you pack, and have your Samoa address and recent country list to hand before the seatbelt sign goes on.
- Empty the pockets of every backpack, jacket and camera bag before the flight: airline fruit, a lounge sandwich and a half-eaten snack all count as food, and if they are undeclared they become biosecurity risk items.
- Check the meat against three conditions at once — commercially packaged, from Australia, New Zealand or the United States, and no more than 10 kg (22 lbs) per person. Miss one and the package does not qualify.
- Leave the honey at home, including royal jelly, propolis, bee pollen and beeswax; the ban carries no personal-use exemption, whatever the quantity.
- Watch: a fresh public notice from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, or a new pest or disease emergency declared under the 2005 Act, would be the earliest signal that import conditions have changed.
Put every questionable item into one bag before you land, and keep permits and receipts with the goods rather than in checked luggage. Tick yes on the arrival card if your bag contains anything in the listed groups. Anything you are still unsure about should travel with you and be declared rather than quietly binned at home: an officer can decide on an item they can see. For an unusual item, confirm whether paperwork is needed with Samoa Customs before you fly.
Samoa’s import rules have already moved twice this year, with the honey ban restated in July and the meat guidance updated in June. Recheck the ministry’s factsheet if you fly in 2027.
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Questions? Answers.
Do I need to declare airline snacks or leftover fruit?
Yes. Food of any kind counts, including packaged snacks and fruit saved from an in-flight meal. If you would rather not carry it through inspection, bin it before you join the queue; anything still in your bag belongs on the arrival card.
What happens if Biosecurity Samoa finds something I did not declare?
Officers can hold the item, reship it or destroy it, and penalties may apply. Samoa publishes no standard instant fine figure, so the outcome rests on the officer’s assessment of the item and the circumstances rather than a fixed schedule. Declaring the same item is not a penalty event in itself: the officer decides whether it can be allowed, held or destroyed.
Are gifts and souvenirs ever a biosecurity issue?
Yes, if they are made from plant or animal material. Woven mats, wooden carvings, dried flowers, herbal medicines and feather or hide items are all inspected for pests, seeds and soil. A gift that has never left a shop shelf still has to be listed on the card.
Do I need a permit for everything?
No. Permits apply to living cultures and organisms such as insects, fungi, bacteria, viruses and plant parasitic organisms, and to other regulated articles including certain plants and high-risk animal products. The requirement turns on the risk an item carries rather than its packaging, so confirm with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries before you travel if you are unsure.
Is this the same as customs duty-free rules?
No. Duty-free limits concern value and duty; biosecurity concerns what an item could carry. Samoa Customs counts your goods for duty while Biosecurity Samoa examines food, plants and animal material separately, which is why a duty-free purchase can still be seized at quarantine.
Can I bring commercially packaged food into Samoa?
Some of it, with conditions. Meat, for example, must be commercially packaged, from Australia, New Zealand or the United States, and within the 10 kg personal limit, and it still goes to the Animal and Plant Quarantine counter. Honey and bee products are the exception: no packaging, quantity or origin makes them legal.
