About Kenya Flower Merchant

What we do

Kenya Flower Merchant publishes what international wholesale buyers need to know about Kenyan cut flowers — specification, seasonality, export requirements, duty and plant health by destination, and how the trade is actually organised — and works with buyers to turn a requirement into a quotation against a stated specification.

The work of the site is research. Every regulatory and trade figure published here is read from the issuing authority, dated, and reviewed. Where a question has no published answer, we say so — and say which part, rather than closing the gap with an estimate.

Two examples of what that looks like in practice. We publish no vase-life figure, because not one source reviewed provided a test method — and the absence is more useful than another unverifiable number. And on comparing Kenya with other origins, we state plainly that Kenya supplies 0.08% of United States cut-flower imports and that a buyer deciding on cost and transit should look to Latin America. A comparison that flattered Kenya everywhere would be worth nothing to you.

What we are not claiming

We do not own farms. We do not operate a packhouse, cold store or transport fleet. We are not stating an export history, a shipped volume, a customer list or a certification we do not hold. Nothing on this site is presented as praise from a buyer, because there is not yet a buyer to quote.

This matters commercially, not just ethically. A buyer evaluating a new supplier is trying to work out which claims are load-bearing. The fastest way to be useful is to be precise about what is established and what is not.

Why the specification comes first

Most flower sourcing begins with a photograph and a price. A photograph tells you nothing about whether the stems will arrive at the length you need, with the head size your team expects, cut at the right stage for your lane, packed the way your handling requires, with documents your customs authority will accept.

Two of the fields that matter most have no standard behind them at all: Kenya has no national grading standard, and there is no industry-standard flower carton. That is not a gap in our research — it is the finding, and it is why a specification has to be written rather than assumed.

A related distinction worth keeping straight, because suppliers routinely blur it: a Kenyan inspection criterion, a Dutch auction convention and a destination legal requirement are three different kinds of statement. What KEPHIS actually checks is not the same thing as an "A1" grade, and neither is the same as what Australia or Saudi Arabia requires at the border.

How we work with buyers

We ask the questions a serious supplier should ask, and we aim to respond to every serious commercial enquiry within one business day. Where a requirement cannot be answered accurately yet, we say which part and why, rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

The other ways to reach us are on the contact page.