Kenyan rose specifications: stem lengths, head sizes and what "grade" actually means

The two numbers that decide almost everything

A Kenyan rose is described, priced and shipped on two measurements: stem length and head size. Almost every other variable — bunch count, stems per box, freight cost per stem — follows from them.

Stem length

Kenyan roses are offered in a ten-centimetre ladder:

The ladder is consistent across Kenyan growers and the traders who buy from them. If you are quoted something outside it, it is worth asking what is meant.

Head size

Head size — the diameter of the bud — is the second variable, and after stem length it is the strongest driver of price. It is commonly tiered:

You will also see head size expressed as two measurements — for example 4 × 3 cm — where the first figure is the diameter and the second the height of the bud.

Why "grade" is a slipperier word than it looks

Buyers new to Kenyan supply often ask for "Grade A" and expect it to mean something fixed. It does not.

Our research has not found a published national Kenyan grading standard for cut flowers. What exists instead is a set of commercial conventions, and they are set by individual sellers and importers rather than by a regulator or an industry body. In practice you will encounter:

• Importer taxonomies. One established UK importer, for instance, splits Kenyan roses into three groups — Intermediate, Hybrid Tea and Extra Large (XL) — and defines Intermediate as a 4 × 3 cm head at 40–60 cm, bunched and sleeved in tens.
• Head-size tiers, as above, where the tier boundaries differ between sellers.
• Letter or code grades such as "A1". These are not simply invented by the seller. A1, A2 and B1 are quality groups within the VBN specification framework used by the Dutch flower auction, graded by the severity of deviation, and B1 is the floor — the framework requires that all cut flowers offered for sale meet at least the B1 requirements. What they are not is a Kenyan standard. So when a Kenyan exporter quotes "A1", the useful question is whether they mean the VBN group or a scale of their own.
• No grade at all. Several Kenyan growers publish stem length and head size by variety and colour, and leave it there — which is arguably the most honest presentation of the three.

The regulated quality criteria that do exist come from a different direction. When KEPHIS inspects a consignment for export it checks, among other things, that the product is "properly graded" — but the standard being applied is the importing country's requirement, not a Kenyan grade scale.

What this means for you

Ask for a specification, not a grade. A stated stem length, a stated head size, a stated bunch count and a stated cutting stage will get you a comparable quotation from any supplier. "Grade A" will not, because two suppliers can both supply "Grade A" and send you materially different flowers.

Bunching, sleeving and boxes

Bunches are typically 10 stems, though 20 is also used. Convention is that the buds sit at a single level, or in two clearly separated layers that do not touch.

Sleeving is less settled than you might expect. Some exporters ship roses sleeved in tens; others ship deliberately unsleeved to avoid humidity building up around the heads in transit. Both practices are current, and which is right depends on the lane and the destination. It is worth asking rather than assuming.

Boxes are corrugated fibreboard. Stem counts per box vary with length and head size — figures in the region of 400 stems, and up to 600, are commonly quoted for Kenyan roses, with marketplace listings often working in 500s and 750s.

Box nomenclature — full box, half box, jumbo box, quattro box — is used constantly in the flower trade and, as far as our research has been able to establish, is not defined in any publicly available standard. Minimum order quantities are often expressed in these units: one marketplace, for example, sets a minimum of one jumbo box for alstroemeria from Kenya against a quarter-box minimum from Colombia and Ecuador. If a quotation is expressed in boxes, ask what the box holds. Why a quotation has to start with the box, not the stem count →

Cutting stage

Roses are cut at a defined stage of opening — commonly described as closed or semi-open. The choice is not cosmetic. It determines how much of the flower's life is spent travelling and how much is left for the buyer's customer, and it becomes critical on long lanes, on sea freight, and for any business that adds a further courier leg at the destination.

If your business ships flowers onward to a consumer, cutting stage is one of the most important things to specify and one of the least often discussed.

Where the specification meets the border

One field on this page is decided somewhere else entirely: destination. It sets the duty, the documents, how often a consignment is opened at the border and how much delay risk the lane carries — and none of that is visible in a stem length.

If you are importing into the United Kingdom, the UK duty, VAT and plant health position sets out what applies, with the source and the date against each figure.