How to read a phytosanitary certificate, field by field — and where Kenyan ones fail

What the document is, and what it is not

A phytosanitary certificate attests that the plants described on it meet the phytosanitary import requirements of the importing country and conform with the certifying statement. It is issued by the exporting country's national plant protection organisation — in Kenya, KEPHIS — on a form whose wording follows the model annexed to the International Plant Protection Convention, so that every certificate in the world carries the same sections in the same order. It is not valid until every requirement is met and it is dated, signed and stamped, or completed electronically, by the issuing organisation. It is not a certificate of quality, grade or origin for customs purposes; proof of origin is a different document with different rules.

The certificate, section by section

No. A unique identification number, which allows trace-back of the consignment and serves for audit and record-keeping. Quote it when you talk to your plant health authority.

Plant Protection Organization of — the issuing country and its organisation. TO: Plant Protection Organization(s) of — the importing country; where a transit country also requires the certificate, both are named and the transit country indicated.

I. Description of consignment

Name and address of exporter. Identifies the source for trace-back; the address should be in the exporting country. Declared name and address of consignee. Enough detail for the importing authority to confirm who the consignee is; "To order" only where that authority permits it. Number and description of packages. Enough to link the certificate to the consignment in front of the inspector. Distinguishing marks. Lot numbers, brand names, container or airway identifiers where needed to identify the consignment.

Place of origin. Where the commodity was grown, in every case the country, and where the destination requires it the name or code of the pest free area, place of production or production site — for Kenyan roses into the European Union and Great Britain, the place-of-production and production-site codes the false codling moth requirement asks for. The requirement, and the four routes it allows →

Declared means of conveyance. "Aircraft", with the flight number if known; the first conveyance after issue, which need not be the one that arrives. Declared point of entry. The first point of arrival in the country of destination, or the country name; where the importing country prescribes points of entry, one of them must be declared and used.

Name of produce and quantity declared. Descriptive enough to verify the contents — the plant, the unit and the quantity, with the customs code where useful, and the intended use or degree of processing, because fresh and dried are treated differently. The standard says entries should not refer to trade names, sizes or other commercial terms. A certificate is not the place for "Grade A" or "60 cm".

Botanical name of plants. The accepted scientific name, at least to genus — Rosa, Dianthus, Gypsophila — and preferably to species. This is the field the inspection tables are keyed to.

Certifying statement. Fixed treaty wording: that the plants have been inspected and/or tested according to appropriate official procedures, are considered free from the quarantine pests specified by the importing country, and conform with its current phytosanitary requirements. "Considered to be free" means free in numbers detectable by the procedures used, not absolute freedom.

II. Additional declaration

What each destination requires Kenya to write in this field, and the standard's twelve model wordings →

The specific statement the importing country requires, over and above the certifying statement. The standard says these should be concise, should not repeat the certifying statement or the treatment section, and where the importing country allows alternative measures should state which option was applied. For Kenyan roses into Great Britain and the European Union this is the false codling moth statement, and it is the single field Kenyan consignments most often fail on. The import permit number may also be referred to here where a permit is required.

III. Disinfestation and/or disinfection treatment

Date, treatment, chemical (active ingredient), duration and temperature, concentration, additional information. Only treatments acceptable to the importing country and performed under the exporting organisation's authority. For Australia this section carries the devitalisation dip — the glyphosate concentration, the duration and the method — and a consignment whose certificate does not describe it faces treatment, re-export or destruction. The doses by genus →

Stamp, name, date, signature

The issuing organisation's official stamp, seal or mark; the authorised officer's name in legible capitals; the date of issue, with the month written in full so that day and month cannot be confused; the signature, added only after the form is complete. On an electronic certificate the issuing organisation's authentication is the equivalent of the signature and stamp, and authenticated data is equivalent to the completed paper document. Why ePhyto matters to a buyer →

What makes a certificate invalid — the standard's list, against the border's record

ISPM 12 lists what an importing authority should treat as invalid, and Great Britain publishes what it actually intercepts. Read together:

ISPM 12, section 3.1.1; UKPHINS interception reports, 2026 weeks 1 to 35. The standard's list also covers unauthorised alterations, illegibility and unauthorised modes of electronic transfer, none of which appear in the Kenyan record. The causes ranked, and the check for each →

Validity, and the destination's clock

The standard leaves the period of validity to the issuing organisation, which may restrict it, and allows the importing country to stipulate its own. Great Britain does: the certificate must have been issued no more than 13 days before or after the consignment left Kenya, and where a paper original is required it is posted to APHA or SASA within 3 days of arrival. The four certificate rules into Great Britain → The Netherlands refuses a consignment whose additional declaration does not reference the relevant EU position, before anything is opened. The Dutch documentary check →

Attachments, copies and replacements

If the information exceeds the form, an attachment may be added, bearing the certificate number, dated, signed and stamped in the same way, and referred to on the certificate. Other documents that travel with the consignment — a CITES certificate, an invoice, an airway bill — are not attachments and should not be referenced on it. A certified copy is one the issuing organisation certifies; a photocopy is not, and "document copy not endorsed" is the third-largest cause in the British record.

What it costs in Kenya

The certificate for fresh produce is KES 500 under the Plant Protection (Fees and Charges) Rules, with inspection charged separately by weight. Every Kenyan charge at origin, listed once →

What to check before departure

1. Botanical name to genus, matching the invoice and the box.
2. The additional declaration — the exact wording and codes the destination requires, not a general statement of freedom.
3. Section III complete where a treatment is required — concentration, duration, method.
4. The date of issue against the destination's window, and the month written out.
5. Original, certified copy or ePhyto — which, and who receives it.