The EU inspection table: Kenyan flowers against every competitor origin

The instrument, and the rule behind the table

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2389 sets the frequency rates for identity checks and physical checks on plants, plant products and other objects entering the Union. It has been amended three times — most recently by Regulation (EU) 2026/1101 of 22 May 2026 — and the consolidated text read for this page is the version dated 15 June 2026. Its application date is 14 December 2022.

Article 4 is the rule. The basic frequency rate for identity and physical checks is 100%. By way of derogation, the plants listed in Annex I, from the origins named against them, are checked at the lower rate the Annex specifies. So a flower that is not in the table is not "unregulated" — it is checked every time. The Annex rates do not apply to plants intended for planting, or to goods subject to emergency or equivalence measures under the plant health law. The rates are minimum percentages of the consignments arriving at a border control post or control point in a calendar year; a consignment is selected by a random draw generated in the Union's IMSOC system, which the competent authority may follow or replace with another consignment of the same category and origin. Where a consignment is selected for a physical check, an identity check is performed as well.

Annex I — cut flowers, in full

Source: Regulation (EU) 2022/2389, Annex I, "Cut flowers", consolidated text of 15 June 2026, read 26 September 2026. This is the complete cut-flower section of the Annex; the rest of the Annex concerns fruits, vegetables and other categories.

Everything else is 100%. Kenyan alstroemeria, chrysanthemums, hypericum, statice, eryngium, solidago, lilies and every other genus not in the table are physically checked on every consignment under Article 4(2). Each product page on this site states which side of the table its flower is on →

What the table says about Kenya

Kenyan roses are checked five times as often as Colombian roses and twenty-five times as often as Ecuadorian ones. Ecuador's 1% and Colombia's 5% sit against Kenya's and Ethiopia's 25% and Zambia's 75%. That is not a judgement about Kenyan quality; it is the false codling moth pathway, which is an African-continent measure, and it is why the same table treats two African origins alike and two Andean origins alike.

On carnations the picture reverses. Kenyan Dianthus is at 5% against Ecuador's and Türkiye's 10%; only Colombia, at 3%, is lower. On gypsophila Kenya is the lightest-inspected origin in the table, at 3% against Ecuador's 5%. For a buyer weighing Kenya against South America, the genus decides which origin carries the heavier inspection burden — and for anything outside the table, every origin carries the same 100%.

The rates were revised together with Great Britain's. The Union's June 2026 consolidation and Defra's frequency table of the same date move in step on roses; they differ on gypsophila (3% into the EU, 5% into Great Britain) and on the residual rule, where Great Britain publishes rates for unlisted genera and the Union does not. The Great Britain table and the fee that goes with it →

What a rate does and does not mean

A minimum rate is a floor, not a promise. The authority may select more, and it may replace the random draw with a consignment it prefers to open. A 3% rate for Kenyan gypsophila does not mean a given consignment has a 3% chance; it means at least 3% of the year's consignments of that category and origin are opened, and yours could be any of them.

The documentary check is separate and universal. Every consignment's certificate is examined; the table governs only whether the boxes are opened. What the documentary check looks for, and what fails →

The rate moves. The Annex has been amended in 2024, 2025 and 2026; the version applying from 15 October 2026 was also checked for this page and its cut-flower rows are unchanged. The review calendar carries the next re-read.

What to ask

• Which genera are in the consignment? A mixed box of roses and alstroemeria meets two rates: 25% and 100%.
• Is the consignment entered at a Union border control post directly, or released in the Netherlands and sold on? The Dutch execution — KCB, CLIENT-import, points of entry →
• Who bears the cost of an opened consignment? The Union's per-check fees, and how one member state charges by the minute →