The phytosanitary certificate into Great Britain: 13 days, 3 days, and the declaration

Rule 1 — issued within 13 days of departure, either side

A phytosanitary certificate for import into Great Britain must have been issued no more than 13 days before or after the date the consignment left the country of export. The guidance adds the point that most people miss: there is no requirement for the consignment to arrive in Great Britain within 13 days of leaving. The window is about the certificate's date against the departure date, not about transit.

For flowers that fly, the window is not the constraint — a certificate issued on the day of inspection at the farm and a departure within a day or two sit comfortably inside it. It becomes a constraint when a consignment is held at origin, split, or re-booked after the certificate has been issued. A re-issued certificate is the answer then, not an old one with a new date on the invoice. How KEPHIS issues it, and why it cannot be added at the end →

Rule 2 — a scanned copy is uploaded when the consignment is notified

For high risk and medium risk A plants and plant products — which is where regulated cut flowers sit — a copy of the phytosanitary certificate is uploaded to IPAFFS when the import is notified, at least four working hours before the flowers land. The guidance's instruction to the importer is plain: check that your exporter has provided one before the consignment arrives, and make sure you get a scanned copy. The notification itself, and the CHED PP it generates →

The practical reading: the certificate has to exist, in your hands, before the aircraft leaves Nairobi — because the notification that needs it is due before the aircraft lands.

Rule 3 — the paper original is posted within 3 days of arrival

Where the original certificate is a paper copy, it must be posted to APHA — or to SASA for a consignment arriving in Scotland — within 3 days of the consignment reaching Great Britain. The guidance gives the addresses: the Animal and Plant Health Agency at Foss House, Kings Pool, 1 to 2 Peasholme Green, York YO1 7PX for England and Wales; SASA, Roddinglaw Road, Edinburgh EH12 9FJ for Scotland.

This is the obligation most easily missed, because it falls due after the flowers have been delivered, unpacked and, in a good week, sold. Nothing in the delivery reminds anyone of it. Build it into the importer's arrival routine, not the buyer's memory. Where the certificate has travelled electronically through the IPPC ePhyto hub there is no paper original to post — and an ePhyto is also the one form of certificate you can independently verify.

Rule 4 — the additional declaration, and the one that applies to roses

A certificate can be genuine, in date, uploaded and posted, and still be refused, because the words on it are wrong. An additional declaration is the official statement an importing country requires on the certificate over and above its standard wording, and for cut roses from Kenya into Great Britain the false codling moth statement has been that declaration since 26 April 2025 — one of four routes, each leaving a different mark on the certificate, none of which can be arranged per shipment.

The border's own records show this is where Kenyan certificates fail. In Great Britain's interception reports for 2026 to date, Kenyan cut flowers recorded 23 interceptions — every one documentary, none a pest — and ten of the twenty-three were an additional declaration that was missing, inadequate or invalid. The rest were endorsement and certificate defects. The full breakdown, and what each error looks like →

What that means for a buyer. The certificate is issued by KEPHIS to the exporter, but the consignment that is refused is yours. Ask, before the first shipment, which false codling moth route the exporter's site is covered under and what wording their certificates carry for it. The answer is checkable against the four routes on this site; a vague one is the signal.

What a failure costs

Where a consignment fails plant health checks, an inspector advises on what must be done with it; where the goods are judged to pose a plant health risk they may be destroyed or returned, and returned goods are treated as an export under the receiving country's rules. The inspection page sets out where and how often checks happen, and what the fees are → — but for a certificate defect the relevant fact is simpler: the flowers do not clear until the paperwork is right, and a rose has a working life measured in days.

What to ask

• Which route is your site covered under for the false codling moth statement, and what does the certificate say?
• Will the certificate be issued as an ePhyto? If so, no paper original needs posting and the certificate is verifiable through the hub.
• Who holds the scanned copy before departure, and who uploads it? On an airport-to-airport purchase the importer of record may be you.
• Who posts the paper original within 3 days, and to which address? Name a person.