Importing Kenyan flowers into Switzerland: a seasonal quota, a certificate, and two airports
Switzerland is the destination whose tariff changes with the calendar. From 1 May to 25 October a cut-flower quota decides whether a Kenyan rose meets a nominal duty or a prohibitive one; from 26 October to 30 April the duty is zero or near it. Plant health follows the Swiss plant protection service rather than the European Union's border posts, with a certificate required from every non-EU origin and checks at two airports. This page states both from the Swiss instruments and marks the two lines it could not read.
The regime, row by row
- Customs duty, roses, 1 May to 25 October
- CHF 13.00 per 100 kg gross inside tariff quota No. 13; CHF 4,225.00 per 100 kg gross outside it Tariff numbers 0603.1110 and 0603.1120 in the Swiss general tariff as published on 1 March 2025. The general tariff is the rate before any preference. Source read 26 September 2026
- Customs duty, roses, 26 October to 30 April
- CHF 0.00 per 100 kg gross Tariff number 0603.1130. The winter rate applies without a quota. Source read 26 September 2026
- Customs duty, carnations
- CHF 25.00 inside the quota and CHF 1,452.00 outside it, 1 May to 25 October; CHF 6.00 from 26 October to 30 April Tariff numbers 0603.1210, 0603.1220 and 0603.1230, per 100 kg gross. Source read 26 September 2026
- Customs duty, chrysanthemums, orchids and lilies
- CHF 25.00 inside the quota and CHF 2,688.00 outside it, 1 May to 25 October; CHF 6.00 from 26 October to 30 April Tariff numbers 0603.1310 to 0603.1530, per 100 kg gross. Source read 26 September 2026
- Customs duty, other fresh cut flowers
- CHF 25.00 inside the quota, 1 May to 25 October; the out-of-quota and winter lines are split by woody and non-woody stems Tariff numbers 0603.1911 and 0603.1918 inside the quota. The remaining lines of the residual subheading did not extract cleanly from the published tariff and are not stated here. Source read 26 September 2026
- Tariff quota No. 13, cut flowers
- 4,590 tonnes a year, minimum access quantity Annex 2 of the general tariff lists quota 13 against tariff numbers 0603.1110, 1210, 1310, 1410, 1510, 1911 and 1918. How shares are allocated to importers was not read. Source read 26 September 2026
- Preferential rate for Kenyan origin
- Not established Switzerland grants tariff preferences to developing countries. The applied rate for Kenya is published in the Tares working tariff, which requires acceptance of terms of use before it can be read; we did not accept them and state no preferential figure. Source read 26 September 2026
- Value added tax on importation
- 2.6%, the reduced rate Article 55(2) of the Swiss VAT Act applies the reduced rate to the importation of the goods listed in Article 25(2)(a), and item 5 of that list is cut flowers and branches, including those made up into arrangements, bouquets and wreaths. Rates dating from 1 January 2024. Charged on the customs value plus duty. Source read 26 September 2026
- Phytosanitary certificate
- Required from every non-EU origin Plant material such as fruit, vegetables, seedlings, seeds or other fresh plant material imported into Switzerland from non-EU countries must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate. The plant-passport arrangement with the EU and Liechtenstein does not extend to third-country imports. Source read 26 September 2026
- Plant health control
- By the Swiss Federal Plant Protection Service at Zurich and Geneva airports The Federal Office for Agriculture states that controls on non-EU imports are carried out by the Eidgenössischer Pflanzenschutzdienst at the airports of Zurich and Geneva. Source read 26 September 2026
- Inspection fee
- Not read on this site The Swiss plant protection service's fee for import controls was not among the pages read. Source read 26 September 2026
- Kenya's exports to Switzerland, 2024
- USD 10.6 million UN Comtrade via WITS, HS 060310, exporter-reported. Switzerland is within Kenya's eleven largest cut-flower export destinations. Source read 26 September 2026
These are published requirements, not a landed cost and not a quotation.
What this page is, and what it is not
This is a statement of the published Swiss general tariff and the Federal Office for Agriculture's plant health rules, with the date each was read. It is not a customs ruling and not a quotation. Two lines a buyer needs — the preferential rate Kenya's origin attracts, and the quota allocation — sit behind the Tares working tariff and the quota administration pages, and this page says so rather than guessing them.
The duty position: a calendar, then a quota
Swiss cut-flower duty is set by the date of import and, in summer, by a quota. The general tariff splits every fresh cut-flower line into two seasons. From 26 October to 30 April the rates are nominal — CHF 0.00 per 100 kg gross for roses, CHF 6.00 for carnations, chrysanthemums, orchids and lilies. From 1 May to 25 October the line splits again: a nominal rate inside tariff quota No. 13 — CHF 13.00 per 100 kg for roses, CHF 25.00 for the others — and a prohibitive one outside it: CHF 4,225.00 per 100 kg for roses, CHF 1,452.00 for carnations, CHF 2,688.00 for chrysanthemums, orchids and lilies.
What that means for a Kenyan programme. A winter rose consignment meets no duty. A summer consignment meets almost none inside the quota and an impossible amount outside it, so a Swiss buyer's quota position from May to October is the commercial fact, not the general rate. Quota No. 13 is 4,590 tonnes a year across the listed cut-flower lines, and how shares are allocated to importers is administered by the Federal Office for Agriculture on pages this site has not read.
One number this site does not state. The general tariff is the rate before any preference. Switzerland grants preferences to developing countries, and the applied rate for Kenyan origin is in the Tares working tariff, which asks the reader to accept terms of use before showing anything; we did not, and we publish no preferential figure. VAT on importation is the reduced rate of 2.6%, because the VAT Act lists cut flowers and branches among the goods at the reduced rate and applies that rate to their importation. How the tariff heading works, and why 0603.19 carries most of Kenya's range →
Plant health: a certificate from every non-EU origin, checked at two airports
Switzerland's plant-passport arrangement with the European Union and Liechtenstein means fruit, vegetables and cut flowers move between them without a plant passport. It does not extend to third-country imports. The Federal Office for Agriculture states that plant material such as fruit, vegetables, seedlings, seeds or other fresh plant material imported from non-EU countries must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, and that the controls on those imports are carried out by the Federal Plant Protection Service at the airports of Zurich and Geneva.
What is not on the pages read. Whether Switzerland applies the European Union's genus-specific special requirements — the false codling moth statement on Kenyan roses among them — to direct third-country imports, and at what inspection frequency, is not stated on the page we read. A Kenyan consignment routed through the Netherlands and then into Switzerland meets the Union's rules first and the Swiss ones second. The Union's inspection table → The certificate, field by field →
The lane
Kenya's exports to Switzerland were USD 10.6 million in 2024 on the UN Comtrade series, within its eleven largest destinations. Much of what reaches Swiss florists from Kenya has passed through the Dutch auction first, and on that route the Swiss border is the second border, not the first. Where Kenya's flowers go → The Dutch gateway →
What to ask
- In which season does the programme run, and does the importer hold a share of quota No. 13 for the summer months?
- Direct from Nairobi to Zurich or Geneva, or via the Netherlands? The border regime changes with the answer.
- What preferential rate does the broker apply to Kenyan origin, and under which instrument? This site has not read it.
- Which additional declaration will the certificate carry for Swiss entry, for each genus in the box? The flower pages state what each genus meets elsewhere →
What we have not been able to establish
Each of these is a real question a buyer may put to us. None has an answer we can evidence from a source we have read, and we would rather say so than fill the gap.
- The preferential duty for Kenyan origin The Tares working tariff carries the applied rates and asks for acceptance of terms of use before showing them. The general tariff we read is the rate before preferences.
- How quota No. 13 is allocated, and to whom The Federal Office for Agriculture administers tariff quotas; the allocation rules for cut flowers were not among the pages that resolved for us.
- The plant protection service's inspection fee Not read. A line on a landed cost this site does not total.
- Whether the EU's special requirements and inspection frequencies apply to direct third-country imports into Switzerland The Federal Office's page states the certificate requirement and the control points and no more. Swiss plant health law mirrors much of the Union's; whether it mirrors the rose requirement is a question for the service.
Considering Switzerland?
Tell us the flower, stem length, head size, quantity, frequency, the season and the destination airport, and we will come back to you.
Questions buyers ask
What is the duty on Kenyan roses into Switzerland?
It depends on the date and the quota. In the Swiss general tariff, roses imported from 26 October to 30 April carry CHF 0.00 per 100 kg gross. From 1 May to 25 October they carry CHF 13.00 inside tariff quota No. 13 and CHF 4,225.00 outside it. The preferential rate for Kenyan origin sits in the Tares working tariff and is not stated here.
Do Kenyan flowers need a phytosanitary certificate for Switzerland?
Yes. The Federal Office for Agriculture states that fresh plant material imported from non-EU countries must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, with controls by the Federal Plant Protection Service at Zurich and Geneva airports. The plant-passport arrangement with the EU does not cover third-country imports.
How big is the Swiss cut-flower quota?
4,590 tonnes a year, listed as quota No. 13 in Annex 2 of the general tariff against the summer in-quota cut-flower lines. How shares are allocated to importers is not something this site has read.
Last verified 26 September 2026
Sources
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Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG) — Generaltarif (Swiss general customs tariff), edition of 1 March 2025
What we read
Heading 0603 - roses 0603.1110 CHF 13.00 inside quota No. 13 and 0603.1120 CHF 4,225.00 outside it from 1 May to 25 October, 0603.1130 CHF 0.00 from 26 October to 30 April; carnations 25.00 / 1,452.00 / 6.00; orchids, chrysanthemums and lilies 25.00 / 2,688.00 / 6.00; other 0603.1911 and 0603.1918 CHF 25.00 inside the quota; all per 100 kg gross. Annex 2 - quota No. 13 Schnittblumen, 4,590 tonnes. Read with table-mode text extraction; the residual out-of-quota lines did not extract cleanly and are not stated.
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Federal Office for Agriculture (BLW) — Einfuhr von Pflanzen (importing plants)
What we read
Fruit, vegetables and cut flowers move to and from the EU and Liechtenstein without a plant passport; fresh plant material from non-EU countries must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate; controls by the Eidgenössischer Pflanzenschutzdienst at Zurich and Geneva airports. Page published 7 February 2025. Read in German.
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Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG) — Zolltarif Tares (working tariff) login page
What we read
The applied and preferential rates sit behind an ENTER button that accepts the terms of use; not accepted in this session, so no preferential rate is stated.
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WITS (World Bank) — Kenya exports of 060310 Fresh cut flowers and buds, 2024, by partner
What we read
Switzerland USD 10.6 million, exporter-reported, as read for the destinations page.
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Fedlex — Bundesgesetz über die Mehrwertsteuer (MWSTG, SR 641.20), Articles 25 and 55
What we read
Article 25(1) standard rate 8.1%; Article 25(2)(a)(5) reduced rate of 2.6% on cut flowers and branches, including arrangements, bouquets and wreaths; Article 55(2) the 2.6% rate on the importation of those goods. Rates dating from 1 January 2024. Read in a browser in German.