Does anyone know if hemp seeds are available anywhere in the Taipei area? navitasnaturals.com/product/454/Hemp-Seeds.html
I’ve checked all of the local health food stores (Santa Cruz, Cotton Field, Yogi House, Leezen, etc.) as well as the larger outlets (i.e. Jason’s and City Super), but nope. I’m reluctant to order them via iHerb, since I’ve read that seeds are considered something of a restricted item and will likely be seized by customs. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Plz advise!
You won’t find it legally … some years back a baker imported some roasted poppy seeds for baking, got arrested and convicted for importing a controlled substance.
What Mandarin phrase are you using? Going round shops asking for anything remotely in that area and you will most likely get looked on as a sinister Laowai.
I had a huge package containing hemp and Maca held up by by mainland customs years ago, DHL phoned and told me. I immediately threw an angry foreigner rant at the clerk on the phone. He sighed, sat through it, waited for me to shut up, and told me I needed to write a letter to Chinese customs proving I was a “person of good character”.
It was an expensive parcel. I knew I only had one shot, so I went home and wrote them an epic letter where I really laid it on thick. I groveled, pleaded, begged. The package arrived a week later, thank God.
Or: you could get a friend to buy it back home and repackage it.
I actually haven’t attempted to ask anyone about the seeds directly since the Chinese name (火麻仁 - huo ma ren) is way too close to the ganj for me to use comfortably here. I usually just meekly and quietly make the rounds in each store, looking for things that resemble what I’m looking for.
Bummer about the customs issues. I will try to think of alternatives. Thanks for sharing. 
I saw some bird food a t a local supermarket that contained hemp seeds.
If you only want a few, here you go.
[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]I saw some bird food a t a local supermarket that contained hemp seeds.
If you only want a few, here you go.[/quote]
There’re 火麻仁 sold in the Chinese medicine pharmacy in NDMCTSGH in neihu, it’ll be $4 per錢 (3.75g), almost $1 NTD/g.
As a kid, back in the days (60’s, 70’s) and probably even now, anglers used to boil the hemp seeds for fishing as bait. They were very skillfully put on a small hook. You could buy the seeds at the local tackle stores, but you couldn’t grow any plants on your property. (in Belgium)