Send parcel to Iceland

Why is the Icelandic recipient asked for their kennitala?

Because without that number, Icelandic customs has no way of knowing who the parcel belongs to. The kennitala is the identification number held by every resident and every company in Iceland, ten digits that follow you through every formality, from opening a bank account to clearing a parcel. The recipient provides it at import, so it's worth making sure they have it to hand rather than discovering it's missing once the parcel has already landed. The rest is straightforward: parcels between private individuals need an honest description of the contents and a realistic value, while commercial goods need an invoice with each item described individually and the HS codes. Documents in English are perfectly fine, practically everyone in Iceland speaks it.

On the label, does the first name or the surname matter more?

The first name, and that's not a figure of speech. Surnames as we know them barely exist in Iceland: most people carry a patronymic, the father's first name followed by "son" for sons and "dóttir" for daughters. Jón Jónsson and his sister Guðrún Jónsdóttir end up with two different surnames despite being siblings, and even the Icelandic phone book is sorted by first name. For shipping purposes nothing changes in practice, you write the full name exactly as the recipient gives it. The address is short: street and number, three-digit postcode and town, 101 for central Reykjavík. For example: "Jón Jónsson, Laugavegur 42, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland, tel. +354 ...". Icelandic uses letters that don't appear on an English keyboard, such as þ and ð. Copying the exact spelling the recipient provides is the best option, but the postcode and house number are enough on their own to get the parcel where it's going.

How long does a parcel take, and what changes outside the capital?

Delivery takes 3 to 6 working days from collection in Italy. The parcel travels by air and touches down at Keflavík, the airport serving the capital, and distribution to the rest of the island starts from there. This is where an Icelandic quirk comes into play: the island is bigger than Portugal but has just under four hundred thousand inhabitants, and around two thirds of them live in the Reykjavík area. For the vast majority of recipients, then, the final leg is short and delivery sits at the lower end of the range. Outside the capital, parcels follow the Hringvegur, the ring road that circles the island, and Akureyri in the north, the Westfjords and the more remote villages need a few extra days. In winter a storm can close a stretch of road for a whole day, in which case delivery simply waits for the wind to drop.

What arrives from Italy on an island of four hundred thousand people?

More than the population figure suggests, because every year Iceland welcomes many times its own population in visitors. Tourism has filled Reykjavík with hotels, restaurants and cafés, and from there come orders for espresso machines, furniture, kitchen equipment and Italian food, from pasta to olive oil to cheese. Then there's the fishing and fish processing industry, the backbone of Icelandic exports, which buys packaging machinery, conveyor belts and spare parts. Geothermal energy is the other big item: almost every Icelandic home is heated with hot water drawn from underground, and the plants and networks that distribute it need pumps, valves and piping, a field where Italian engineering is very much at home. And finally fashion, design and home accessories, which find a small but very discerning audience in Reykjavík.

Wind and damp: how do you pack a parcel for Iceland?

The enemy isn't the cold, which thanks to the Gulf Stream is milder in Reykjavík than you might think, but wind and water. Atlantic gusts are constant, the rain comes in sideways and the air carries salt, so it's wise to assume the parcel will spend a few minutes outdoors during handovers or at the moment of delivery. A sturdy outer box, contents wrapped in waterproof film and tape across every seam solve the problem before it starts. For electronics and anything else that dislikes moisture, a sealed bag inside the box is worth the extra minute. In the winter months the days are extremely short and the usable delivery windows shrink with them. If you're shipping between November and February, or aiming for a fixed date such as Christmas, it pays to set off a few days early.