Flower council now certified to conduct farm audits

The Kenya Flower Council has become the first growers association to be certified to audit flower farms.

Traditionally this has been a preserve of highly skilled personnel contracted by Western-based international inspection firms.

The certification was Kenya’s marketing point at the 2009 biennial international horticultural show, Hortifair, held in Holland in mid-October.

This development brightens an industry that has suffered a 30 per cent drop in sales occasioned by drought and the global financial crisis.

The chief executive officer of the Kenya Flower Council Jane Ngige told The EastAfrican that the growers’ association is not only the first but also the only growers organisation in the world to attain the coveted status.

This means Kenya can now audit other African countries which have had to rely on costly international auditors.

Set to benefit are growers in the region, whose proximity to Kenya gives them the advantage of closer services, and the possibility of enjoying local rates under the East African Community spirit, and non-members of the Kenya Flower Council who no longer need to hire external auditors since the service is available locally.

“It now means that our mark of quality is acceptable internationally,” Mrs Ngige said, adding that the International Standards Organisation (ISO) Guide 165 is specifically given to a certification body and is different from the ISO quality management systems, which is awarded to organisations that meet stipulated operational policies.

Until now, the flower council was largely a self-regulating agency, working to meet certain market-driven standards for due diligence, with growers subscribing to their own code of practice, after which they had to be subjected to external audits to acquire international quality labels.

The flower council’s code of practice now in its seventh edition, has been undergoing revision every year, and is benchmarked with all the international labels, top among them GlobalGap, the Flower Label Programme and the Dutch environmental requirement, MPS.

The GlobalGap is a standard developed by leading European supermarkets detailing the Good Agricultural Practices that must be adhered to by suppliers touching on the environmental and labour standards.

Although the code has since inception been recognised as a standard label for exporters, who are members of the council, they still had to be multiple audited every year, but this will no longer be necessary, neither will they spend millions to comply with several labels from different buyers since the council’s code now represents the marks of quality as required by both international auction houses and direct buyers.

According to the council documents, audits conducted by international consultants cost about $400 per day, excluding air fare, transport and accommodation, and take at least three days.

When a single farm undergoes a minimum of six audits, the cost ranges from about Ksh400,000-Ksh1 million ($5,333-13,000) for a single audit.

“Kenya has always set standards in the global horticultural markets and this new standardisation moves the country to a higher level where we must maintain a culture of effective compliance with good practices in production,” Mrs Ngige said.