IPAFFS for Kenyan flowers: registering, notifying, and the CHED PP

Who must use it

Importers of high risk and medium risk A plants and plant products from non-EU countries must use IPAFFS — the import of products, animals, food and feed system — to pre-notify the authorities, upload documents, read what checks the consignment will face, and follow its progress. Regulated cut flowers move under plant health controls in those categories, which is why a Kenyan consignment is pre-notified at all. The GOV.UK guidance sets out the obligations in one list: register to import if importing for the first time; get a phytosanitary certificate from the exporter; meet ISPM 15 for any wood packaging; notify the authorities; comply with documentary, identity and physical checks; pay the fees.

"Importer" is the word to watch. On an airport-to-airport purchase the importer of record may be you, not the Kenyan exporter and not the freight agent — and IPAFFS registration, the notification and the invoice all attach to that party.

Registering

You must register to use IPAFFS before importing high risk or medium risk A plants and plant products from non-EU countries. On completing registration you are officially registered as a professional operator to import plants and plant products. The guidance gives an APHA helpline for registration difficulties — 03300 416 999 — and an email address; timber, wood products and bark register with the Forestry Commission instead.

Registration is a one-off, not per consignment, and it is the step first-time importers most often discover late. Do it before the first booking, not after the first flight.

Notifying — at least four working hours before landing

Using IPAFFS you must let APHA (England and Wales) or SASA (Scotland) know in advance when the goods will arrive — the pre-notification — and upload any necessary documents, for example a scanned copy of the phytosanitary certificate and accompanying documents. The notice periods in the guidance are:

Source: GOV.UK, "Import plants and plant products from non-EU countries to Great Britain", last updated 27 August 2026, read 26 September 2026.

If you do not give enough notice, the consignment may be delayed. After the notification is submitted, IPAFFS tells you whether the consignment has been selected for checks.

Four working hours is short, and "working" is the operative word. A Friday-night departure from Nairobi that lands early Saturday is notified during Friday's working hours or not at all. The certificate has to exist before that — the certificate rules on this site set out why it must be in hand before the aircraft leaves.

What the notification produces: the CHED PP

The notification generates a Common Health Entry Document for plants — the CHED PP — which covers one consignment, from one exporter to one importer. Three practical consequences follow from the CHED PP being the unit:

• Charges are levied per CHED PP. Great Britain's plant health check fee is charged on every consignment, opened or not, so splitting one purchase across two entries doubles that line. The inspection page sets out the fee and its components →
• The invoice goes to the importer named on the CHED PP application. On an airport-to-airport purchase, that is the buyer.
• The checks attach to it. Documentary, identity and physical checks, and the frequency at which a Kenyan rose consignment is opened, are decided per CHED PP.

Where the goods may arrive

High risk and medium risk A plants and plant products from non-EU countries must enter Great Britain at an airport or port with a border control post able to handle plants. The consignment may then be moved to an inland control point — and a buyer's own premises can be one, if designated by Defra and authorised as an ACTS or ETSF facility. Where checks happen, and the list of BCPs and control points →

After arrival: two obligations that outlive the delivery

Where the original phytosanitary certificate is a paper copy, it must be posted to APHA or SASA within 3 days of the consignment reaching Great Britain. And if the consignment fails a check, the inspector's decision — destroy, or return as an export — attaches to the importer on the CHED PP. Both are set out with the addresses and the failure rules on the certificate page.

The Union's equivalent - the CHED-PP, one working day, and the four-hour derogation →

What to ask

• Who is the importer of record, and are they registered on IPAFFS as a professional operator?
• Who submits the notification, from what certificate, and when — in working hours before landing?
• One consignment, one CHED PP: is the purchase being entered as one, or split?
• Which BCP, and is a control point being used?