Glossary: the terms of the Kenyan flower trade, defined once

How to read this page

Each definition is drawn from one of this site's own pages, and links to it. That is a constraint, not a convenience: a glossary that defined terms from general knowledge would be the one place on the site where a statement had no source. Where a page says a thing is not defined anywhere public — box names, "grade" — the entry here says the same.

Terms are grouped by where a buyer meets them: the product, the paperwork, origin and duty, the border, the trade, and the Kenyan and destination institutions whose names recur.

The product

Stem length

One of the two measurements a Kenyan rose is described, priced and shipped on. Roses are commonly offered at 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 centimetres; bunch count, stems per box and freight cost per stem all follow from it. Rose specifications →

Head size

The diameter of the bud — and after stem length, the strongest driver of price. Tiered from around 3.5 centimetres upwards. Sometimes written as two figures, for example 4 × 3 cm, where the first is the diameter and the second the height. Rose specifications →

Grade

A word less precise than most buyers assume. Our research found no Kenyan national grading standard; what exists are commercial conventions set by individual sellers and importers. Letter codes such as A1, A2 and B1 are quality groups within the VBN framework, with B1 as its floor. Ask for a specification — stem length, head size, bunch count, cutting stage — rather than a grade, because two suppliers can both supply "Grade A" and send you materially different flowers. What "grade" actually means →

Cutting stage

How open the bloom is when it is harvested. If your business ships flowers onward to a consumer it is one of the most important things to specify, and one of the least often discussed. Rose specifications →

Bunch and sleeve

Roses are commonly bunched in tens. Sleeving is less settled than you might expect: some exporters sleeve, others ship deliberately unsleeved to avoid humidity building up around the heads in transit, and both practices are current. Rose specifications →

Box — full, half, quarter, jumbo, quattro, petite

Trade-practice names for the shipping carton. Used constantly, and — as far as this site's research could establish — defined in no publicly available standard. The dimensions behind the names vary by market and supplier, which is exactly why they cannot be relied on and why a quotation has to start from the box you will actually be shipped. Why a quotation starts with a box →

Chargeable (volumetric) weight

The weight an airline charges on — actual weight or a volume-derived figure, whichever is greater. The IATA method is public even though the rates are not, and it is the reason the box, not the stem count, is the unit a flower quotation is built on. Why a quotation starts with a box →

Vase life

How long a flower lasts in water after purchase. Widely claimed and rarely tested: none of the Kenyan flower pages reviewed publishes a test method, so this site states no figure. What determines it — and where it is lost — is set out on the page. What determines vase life →

Cold chain and pre-cooling

The unbroken sequence of refrigeration from harvest to customer. In Kenya it begins on the ground, not in the air: there are 14 pack houses with pre-cooling in the JKIA freight area, because field heat that is not removed before packing is not recoverable later. The breaks that cost vase life are most often an airport hold or destination clearance. How flowers reach buyers → · Vase life →

Summer flowers

The trade's name for Kenya's non-rose range. They trade differently from roses, are inspected at different rates, and come largely from a different region — the Mount Kenya side rather than the Rift Valley. Beyond roses → · Kenya is not one growing region → One page per flower →

VBN

The Dutch flower auction's specification framework, within which A1, A2 and B1 are quality groups graded by the severity of deviation. Its per-genus specifications sit behind a login, which is why this site publishes the framework and not per-product numbers. Rose specifications →

Royal FloraHolland and "the clock"

The Dutch cooperative auction marketplace. "The clock" is its auction: on the auction route you are buying whatever cleared the clock that morning, at that morning's price. How flowers reach buyers →

The paperwork

Phytosanitary certificate

The exporting country's official certification that a consignment meets the importing country's plant health rules. It is not paperwork collected at the airport: KEPHIS inspects during the growing period, against the rules of the country you are importing into, so the certificate cannot be added at the end. KEPHIS phytosanitary certification → The certificate, field by field →

NPPO

National plant protection organisation — the authority in each country that issues and receives phytosanitary certificates and communicates pest status to other countries. For Kenya that is KEPHIS. False codling moth →

Additional declaration

The official statement an importing country requires on the phytosanitary certificate, over and above its standard wording. For Kenyan roses into Great Britain since 26 April 2025 the false codling moth statement is exactly that — and an additional declaration that was missing, inadequate or invalid was the single largest cause of Kenyan cut-flower interceptions at the British border in 2026 to date. The document pack → Ten of twenty-three interceptions, and the check that catches it → By destination, with the model wordings →

ISPM 4 and ISPM 10

The international standards for a pest free area (ISPM 4) and a pest free place of production (ISPM 10). Two of the four false codling moth routes rest on them, and each leaves a different mark on the certificate — the area named under "place of origin", or a place-of-production code communicated in advance in writing. False codling moth →

ePhyto

The IPPC's system for moving a phytosanitary certificate electronically from the exporting country's plant protection organisation to the importing country's, through a central hub. A certificate you are emailed is a claim; a certificate your own regulator has received through the hub is a fact. Verifying a Kenyan supplier → Where the electronic certificate sits in the export sequence →

IPAFFS

Great Britain's import notification system for plants and plant products. A consignment must be pre-notified on it, and the notice period is short — at least four working hours before landing. The document pack → IPAFFS step by step — registering, notifying, the CHED PP →

CHED PP

The entry document an IPAFFS notification generates — a Common Health Entry Document for plants. It covers one consignment, from one exporter to one importer; charges are levied per CHED PP, and the invoice goes to the importer named on it. The document pack → Where the charge per CHED PP comes from → The Union's rules for it, article by article →

The 13-day window

Into Great Britain, a phytosanitary certificate must be issued no more than 13 days before or after the date the consignment left the country of export. There is no requirement to arrive within 13 days — the window is about issuance. The document pack → The four certificate rules into Great Britain →

The 3-day posting

Where the original certificate is a paper copy, it must be posted to APHA — or SASA for Scotland — within 3 days of the consignment reaching Great Britain. The obligation most easily missed, because it falls due after the flowers have been delivered. The document pack → The four certificate rules into Great Britain →

Risk category

Great Britain groups plant imports by risk under its Border Target Operating Model. The category decides, among other things, whether a copy of the certificate must be uploaded to IPAFFS — it must for high risk and medium risk A goods — and where the goods must enter. The United Kingdom →

Import permit

A destination-issued authorisation that must exist before the flowers move. Australia requires one where pests are managed through an NPPO-approved systems approach — a condition in which the department names Kenya — and a valid copy must accompany the consignment. Saudi Arabia's permit runs 15 days from issuance, must be obtained at least 24 hours before arrival, and names the port of entry and the species. The document pack → The Australian permit condition, where Kenya is named →

Devitalisation

A treatment Australia requires on imported cut flowers to prevent propagation. The phytosanitary certificate must describe it — concentration, duration and dipping method — and consignments without correct documentation face treatment in Australia, re-export or destruction. Australia → The dip, the doses by genus and the certificate wording →

BICON

Australia's biosecurity import conditions database, where the current conditions for a commodity are published. Verify in it before shipment: the conditions change, and the Australia page says which of its own rows it could not close from BICON. Australia → BICON, the permit and what a failed consignment costs →

The document pack

The set of documents a consignment travels with. This site covers the regulatory ones at field level — the phytosanitary certificate and its statements, the proof of origin, the pre-notification, the permits — and says plainly that the commercial documents (invoice, air waybill, packing list) are trade practice rather than instrument, and are not set out here. The document pack →

ISPM 12

The international standard for phytosanitary certificates, adopted 2022, which sets the model form and the rules for completing it — and lists what makes a certificate invalid. The certificate, field by field →

Origin and duty

Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

The UK–Kenya and EU–Kenya trade agreements under which Kenyan cut flowers enter at 0% customs duty — conditional on proving origin. The EU agreement, in force since 1 July 2024, has no origin protocol of its own; its origin rules are borrowed. Proof of origin → · The European Union →

Wholly obtained

The origin rule that applies to flowers. Article 7 of the origin protocol treats plants grown, harvested or gathered in Kenya as wholly obtained there, so a rose grown and cut in Kenya originates in Kenya outright — no working-or-processing test, no list rule, no percentage of local content. Proof of origin →

Proof of origin — EUR.1 and the origin declaration

The two proofs the agreement accepts. A movement certificate EUR.1, issued on application to any exporter; or an origin declaration, which any exporter may make out for a consignment up to EUR 6,000 and an approved exporter at any value. A commercial flower consignment ordinarily exceeds EUR 6,000, so in practice the choice is EUR.1 or approved-exporter status. A proof of origin is valid for ten months. Proof of origin →

Approved exporter

An exporter authorised by the exporting country's customs to make out origin declarations irrespective of value, on offering "all guarantees necessary to verify the originating status of the products". The declaration carries the authorisation number, and the status can be withdrawn. Proof of origin →

Non-alteration

The transit rule, and it is more permissive than most summaries suggest. A proof of origin survives storage in a third country, and even splitting of the consignment under the exporter's responsibility, provided it happens under customs supervision; anything beyond preserving the goods loses the preference. The rule is non-alteration, not direct transport. Proof of origin → · Routing into the UK →

AGOA

The African Growth and Opportunity Act, under which Kenyan roses enter the United States free of the 6.8% duty otherwise applied. It is time-limited — it expires on 31 December 2028 — and because Colombia holds its own US agreement, origin gives Kenya parity there rather than advantage. Kenya compared with other origins → The United States lane - duty, AGOA and the inspection rule →

Erga omnes

The EU tariff's term for the rate applied to everyone without a preference — 12% on cut flowers — against the 0% Kenya preference that depends on origin. The European Union →

Ad valorem

A charge set as a percentage of value. Three on this site: Kenya's AFA export levy at 0.25% of customs value, the UAE's effective 10.25% and Saudi Arabia's effective 20.75%. None falls as an order grows, and all three rise when the flowers get better. What the border costs →

Customs value and compounding

The value a percentage charge is applied to. In the Gulf the VAT base is the importation value including insurance, freight and the customs duty itself, so the two taxes compound: 5% duty and 5% VAT in the UAE come to 10.25%, not 10%; 15% and 5% in Saudi Arabia come to 20.75%, not 20%. The United Arab Emirates → · Saudi Arabia →

HS 0603

The Harmonized System heading for cut flowers and flower buds for bouquets or ornamental purposes; 0603 11 is roses. Every tariff line, duty rate and inspection rule on this site is keyed to it. False codling moth → The codes, the rates that hang on them, and the one WITS uses →

EAEU and its Common Customs Tariff

The Eurasian Economic Union — Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia — applies one customs tariff at every external border. For fresh cut flowers it is 5% of customs value, but not less than EUR 0.30 per kilogram, and goods from a developing country on the Union's list, Kenya among them, pay 75% of that rate. Kazakhstan →

Form A

The certificate of origin used under generalised systems of tariff preferences, including the Eurasian Economic Union's. A Kenyan Form A is issued by the Kenya Revenue Authority's Customs Services Department, according to the Union's list of authorised bodies. Kazakhstan → · Proof of origin on the European lanes →

The border

False codling moth

Thaumatotibia leucotreta, the pest behind how Kenyan roses are inspected. Since 26 April 2025 the phytosanitary certificate for cut roses from Africa into Great Britain and the European Union must carry an official statement under one of four routes. It is a pathway measure applying to the whole continent, not a finding against Kenya — and it is why roses meet heavier inspection than gypsophila. False codling moth →

Official statement

The wording the false codling moth rules require on the certificate — which of the four routes applied, evidenced in advance in writing to the destination authority by the NPPO. Each route leaves a different mark on the paperwork, and none can be arranged per shipment. False codling moth →

Documentary, identity and plant health checks

The three official controls at a British or EU border. The documentary check reads the certificate; the identity check confirms the goods match it; the plant health check is the physical inspection. The EU prices each separately — EUR 7 for the documentary check, and for cut flowers EUR 17.50 for the plant health check up to 20,000 stems — while Great Britain's £7.64 is flat whether the entry covers one box or forty. What the border costs → The British inspection — frequency by flower, fee, place →

Inspection frequency

The share of consignments that receive the physical check, set per origin and genus. Kenyan roses: 25% into Great Britain and 25% into the European Union. Kenyan gypsophila: 5% into Great Britain and 3% into the EU. The pest, not the origin, explains the rose figure. The United Kingdom → · The European Union → The EU table, origin by origin, beside Great Britain's →

Interception

A consignment stopped at the border for a non-compliance. In Great Britain's reports for 2026 to date, Kenyan cut flowers recorded 23 — every one documentary, none a pest; 20 were released and 3 destroyed. Kenya also leads the table by count, and the report gives no denominator. The document pack → The causes, ranked, and the check for each →

Border control post and control point

Plants must enter Great Britain at a port or airport with a border control post able to handle them — but entry and inspection are not the same event. Checks may be moved to an inland control point, which can be the buyer's own premises if designated by Defra and authorised as an ACTS or ETSF facility. The United Kingdom → Where the British check physically happens →

Failed consignment

Into Great Britain, a consignment that fails its checks is destroyed or returned. Every documentary failure recorded against Kenyan flowers in 2026 was checkable before the flowers left Nairobi. The United Kingdom → · The document pack → What each border does with a failed consignment →

The via-EU rule

Goods brought from Kenya through the European Union may be treated as an EU import into Great Britain where, while in the EU, they entered free circulation and passed EU plant health checks. It answers the plant health question; it does not answer whether the tariff preference survives a sale in free circulation, which is a customs and origin question. The United Kingdom →

Plant passport

The label required for moving listed plant material between professional operators inside the European Union, and separately inside Great Britain — and cut flowers are on neither list. The EU list is Annex XIII of Implementing Regulation 2019/2072 (plants for planting, citrus-family plants, wood, seed); the GB list covers plants for planting, wood and seed. Once a Kenyan consignment has cleared the border, no plant health document travels on with it. The European Union → · The United Kingdom → Why none is needed, in the EU or Great Britain →

PPQ Form 523

The emergency action notification a United States inspector issues when imported cut flowers are found infested or infected. It orders destruction, re-export, movement to an authorised site, treatment or cleaning, within a stated time and at the importer's expense. The rule in 7 CFR 319.74 →

Phytosanitary control post

Kazakhstan's term for the plant quarantine unit at a border crossing or other point where regulated products enter. Kazakh law lets plants and plant products enter only through one, and customs clearance follows the quarantine control. Kazakhstan →

The trade

Auction route and direct route

The two ways Kenyan flowers reach a buyer, and they are not two ways of doing the same thing. On the auction route you buy whatever cleared the clock that morning, at that morning's price. On the direct route you agree a specification and a rhythm, and the price reflects that commitment. A quotation from one is not comparable with a quotation from the other. How flowers reach buyers →

Incoterms — sea-only and any-mode

The rules for who pays for carriage and where risk passes. FOB, CIF, CFR and FAS are sea-only rules and do not apply to a consignment that flies — so "FOB Nairobi" is the wrong term for flowers. The any-mode group is EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP and DDP. Incoterms for airfreighted flowers →

CPT and CIP

Carriage Paid To, and Carriage and Insurance Paid To. The seller pays the freight to the named destination airport — but risk passes to the buyer at origin, when the goods are handed to the first carrier. CIP is identical except that the seller must insure. Incoterms for airfreighted flowers →

DAP

Delivered At Place — a named place at destination, which requires the seller to manage the destination leg. Incoterms for airfreighted flowers →

Export levy

The Agriculture and Food Authority's charge on every exported consignment: 0.25% of customs value. Ad valorem, so it moves with the value of the flowers — but at that rate, a rounding line. What the border costs → Every Kenyan charge at origin, listed once →

Seasonality

Four different things people call "season", set out separately on the seasonality page — and the finding that Kenya's best quality window, June to September, is the Northern Hemisphere's weakest demand. Seasonality →

Rift Valley and Mount Kenya

Kenya's two main growing regions, and they are not interchangeable. The Rift Valley grows the volume roses and breeds the varieties; the Mount Kenya region grows the summer flowers. Which region you are buying from changes what you can specify. Kenya is not one growing region → Naivasha → Mount Kenya →

Kenyan institutions

KEPHIS

The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service — Kenya's plant health authority. It inspects during the growing period and issues the phytosanitary certificate. Farm export certification runs from regional offices near the crop — Naivasha and Nakuru sit in the heart of rose production — as well as from the airport. KEPHIS phytosanitary certification → The export sequence, in order →

AFA and the Horticultural Crops Directorate

The Agriculture and Food Authority is a state corporation under the Agriculture and Food Authority Act No. 13 of 2013, regulating scheduled crops under the Crops Act No. 16 of 2013; horticulture sits with its Horticultural Crops Directorate. It licenses exporters and collects the export levy. Verifying a Kenyan supplier →

IMIS

AFA's portal, through which licences are applied for and renewed. It is a portal for the licence holder, not a lookup for their customers: no public register was located that lets a buyer verify a named exporter's licence independently, so the licence is a document to request. Verifying a Kenyan supplier → What an exporter can show you, and what has no public register →

KS 1758 Part 1

Kenya's horticulture industry code of practice for floriculture, with a scope reaching consolidators, traders, shippers and cargo handlers as well as growers. Whether it is mandatory or voluntary is a point on which sources conflict and this site does not settle; the Authority's own portal for the code was unreachable when checked. Certification and the FSI Basket →

Kenya Flower Council Silver Standard

The Kenyan scheme benchmarked into all three scopes of the FSI Basket — good agricultural practice, environmental and social. Certification and the FSI Basket → The Kenyan standard - Silver and Gold, what it covers, what cannot be checked →

FSI Basket

The Floriculture Sustainability Initiative's list of benchmarked certification schemes, in three scopes: GAP, environmental and social. It is what European buyers mean when they ask for a basket-recognised certification. Certification and the FSI Basket → GLOBALG.A.P. for flowers → MPS →

CR12

The official company search from Kenya's Business Registration Service, obtained through the eCitizen portal, returning a company's registered particulars. It costs KES 650. Verifying a Kenyan supplier →

JKIA

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi — where the cold chain begins, with 14 pack houses with pre-cooling in the freight area. How flowers reach buyers →

GGN

The GLOBALG.A.P. Number — a unique 13-digit identifier every certified producer carries. Certification status is checked against it on the GLOBALG.A.P. IT platform; a PDF of a certificate is not the check. What the flowers standard covers →

MPS-ECAS

The independent certification body that audits and issues MPS certificates. MPS-ABC is a quarterly environmental score; MPS-GAP requires it; MPS-SQ requires an A. The three letters explained →

Destination authorities

APHA, SASA and Defra

Great Britain's plant health authorities. Defra sets the policy; the Animal and Plant Health Agency operates it in England and Wales, and Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture in Scotland — which is why a paper certificate is posted to one or the other. The United Kingdom →

ZATCA

Saudi Arabia's Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority. Its integrated tariff sets the duty, and its VAT guideline — quoting the Unified VAT Agreement — sets the taxable base that makes 15% and 5% compound to 20.75%. Saudi Arabia →

MOCCAE

The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, which operates the agricultural quarantine centres at the entry points, including a Dubai Flower Center. Whether cut flowers need its agricultural consignment permit is a question this site leaves open: the permit's published scope names seeds, seedlings, plants and honey bees, and does not name cut flowers. The United Arab Emirates →

NVWA and KCB

The two Dutch bodies a Kenyan consignment meets. The NVWA — the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority — keeps the EU import requirements current; the KCB — the Kwaliteits-Controle-Bureau — carries out the phytosanitary import inspection of cut flowers on its behalf, at the point of entry or an approved warehouse, and charges a start fee plus a per-minute rate. The Netherlands →

CLIENT-import

The Dutch national system in which an import consignment of plants or plant products is declared. It generates the Common Health Entry Document and, after inspection, feeds TRACES automatically; the importer or agent must be registered with KCB to use it. The Netherlands →

DAFF

Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry — the biosecurity authority whose import conditions live in BICON and whose fees are on the border-costs page. Australia → · What the border costs →

ACIR

APHIS's Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements database, where the United States publishes the conditions for a commodity from an origin. Searching it for Kenya returns entries for roses and alstroemeria whose documents this site could not open; the entry for the genus, dated, is the requirement. The United States lane →

DigiPlant and mottakskontroll

Norway's import notification system, and the receiving control a Norwegian importer must perform itself — documentary, identity and physical — on certificate-bearing plants. Norway →

Federal Plant Protection Service (EPSD) and quota No. 13

Switzerland's plant health service, which checks non-EU plant imports at Zurich and Geneva airports, and the seasonal cut-flower tariff quota — 4,590 tonnes — inside which summer duty is nominal and outside which it is prohibitive. Switzerland →

Plant Protection Station

Japan's plant quarantine authority under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which inspects every imported consignment at the port and publishes the import conditions database. Japan →

What is deliberately not here

Minimum order quantities, samples, lead times, trading terms and claims. Each of those is a commercial policy, not a term of the trade, and this site states none until the owner has set them. A definition here would imply a policy that does not exist.