Why a flower quotation has to start with a box, not a stem count

How air freight actually charges

The method is public and standard, even though the prices are not. IATA states it plainly:

"Air carriers can charge by volumetric weight, which is dimensional weight, or by actual weight. Whichever is higher, the volumetric weight or actual weight, that is the amount that will be used for pricing the air freight cost."

"To determine the volumetric rate, the general rule is to divide the volume of the shipment in cubic centimetres by 6000."

So:

volumetric kg  =  (L × W × H in cm) ÷ 6000
chargeable kg  =  the greater of actual gross kg and volumetric kg

One detail that catches people out: the cubic volume is taken from the greatest length, width and height of the package. Bulges, lids and overhang count. A box that measures neatly on paper and bows in the middle when packed is charged on the bow.

Why this matters far more for flowers than for most cargo

Cut flowers are bulky and light. They almost always charge on volume rather than actual weight.

The consequence is counter-intuitive and worth stating directly:

Reducing the weight of a consignment usually does not reduce its freight cost. Reducing its packed volume does.

Box dimensions, how tightly stems are packed, and box height relative to stem length are therefore commercial decisions, not merely handling ones. They belong in the specification conversation, not only in the packhouse.

There is no standard flower box — and that is a finding, not a gap

It would be convenient if "a box of roses" meant something fixed. It does not, and we checked this four ways.

What genuinely constrains a box is physical, not normative: it should suit the pallet, which must suit the aircraft's unit load device and the hold.

What the volume rule does to a price — worked from a published spec

Take the one box specification we could find actually published — a US wholesaler's designations — and apply the IATA formula to it. These are arithmetic on a third party's published dimensions. They are not our box specifications, and they are not a rate.

Read the names sceptically, because they mislead. A "half box" is not half a full box — on these published dimensions it is two-thirds the height, and it prices at almost exactly one-third less on volume. The name suggests 50%; the arithmetic gives 33%.

And the flowers inside are irrelevant to that number. Where a carton's actual weight sits below its volumetric weight — which for flowers it usually does — the charge follows the box, whatever is in it.

Why nobody can simply quote you a freight rate

This is worth understanding before you conclude that a supplier is being evasive. IATA distinguishes four rate types:

The rates that apply to a working flower lane are contract or spot. IATA describes contract rates as confidential. That is a structural property of the market, not a fact anybody has failed to look up — and it is why no credible figure for a delivered cost appears anywhere on this site.

That is only half the picture, though. Freight being unquotable does not make the structure of a price unknowable — and on this lane freight is the dominant term rather than a line item. How Kenyan flower pricing is actually layered, and why the price you found is probably the wrong level, sets that out.

What is fixed and knowable on the Kenyan side

Freight cannot be published. Kenya's own statutory charges can, because they are gazetted — and knowing them tells you which parts of a quotation are not up for discussion.

These are two separate agencies under two separate instruments, and they should never be added together into one "Kenyan export cost" line. They are charged differently, for different things.

A — Agriculture and Food Authority, under the Crops (Horticultural Crops) Regulations, Third Schedule:

The charging provision is explicit that the levy applies "on all horticultural crops destined for export" at 0.25 per cent of the customs value.

B — Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, under the Plant Protection (Fees and Charges) Rules — the certificate, the inspection and the per-consignment export charge. Those are set out on the phytosanitary page, with the court cross-check that confirms them.

Why this belongs on a page about quotations. It separates the negotiable from the fixed. The export levy scales with value; the KEPHIS inspection scales with weight; freight scales with volume. Three different bases, and a quotation that lumps them into one number is hiding which of the three is moving when the price changes. The same three bases, extended to the destination charges, are compared here.

What this means for your enquiry

• Ask for a box specification, not only a per-stem price — length, width, height and stems per box. Without it, two quotations are not comparable.
• Check that box height matches your stem length. A taller box than the stems need is volume you are paying to fly.
• Do not read trade box names as measurements. Ask what the box actually measures.
• Expect freight to be quoted separately or indicatively, and expect it to move. A supplier who gives you a firm, unconditional freight figure months ahead is telling you something about how they price, not about the market.