Still Table Wine

Your still table wine compliance map will include:

• Applicable quality requirements
• Required certifications
• Testing requirements
• Labeling rules
• Estimated costs & worked example

How to Use This Report

This report is built to be read in the order the actual export process happens. Section 2 shows you the sequence end to end. Section 3 tells you, for each requirement, whether it’s something you arrange as the exporter or something your Kenyan importer arranges. Sections 4 onward go into the technical detail: standards, testing, labeling, costs, and the mistakes that most commonly cause delays or rejections.

Two roles, one shipment

• Exporter :origin-side certification, testing, Pre shipment inspection(where applicable), shipping documents.
• Importer (your Kenya-based buyer or their agent) : permits, port-side inspection, customs clearance, market authorization.
• Where a step is genuinely shared, it’s marked accordingly. If you don’t yet have a confirmed importer of record in Kenya, treat that as your first open item; several steps in Section 3 cannot start without one

 Start to Finish

Nine phases, in order. Wine carries one structural difference from most food categories: the NACADA import licence (Phase 2) is a standing authorization tied to your importer’s business, not a per-shipment permit you must get it in place well before your first consignment, not while goods are already in transit. Phase 3, excise stamping, is critical to alcoholic beverages.

Responsibility Matrix

Same three tags as Section 2, applied to every individual requirement. Use this to divide the work with your importer before shipment this is the single most common source of last-minute delays.

Match Summary

Why This Category Gets Flagged

The  most common triggers for a compliance hold on wine shipments:

• Importing without a valid NACADA licence; alcoholic drinks cannot be imported without NACADA authorization.
• Non-compliant health warning label. The warning must cover at least 30% of the package surface area, use the exact prescribed format, and rotate at least two messages. Getting the format wrong is treated the same as omitting it entirely.
• Short shelf life — food and beverage products must retain at least 75% of shelf life upon arrival. In practice this rarely binds for wine given its long shelf life, but it’s still an official requirement you need to be able to document.

Regulatory Agencies Involved

Expert note

• County-level retail licensing (under each county’s own Alcoholic Drinks Control regulations) is a separate requirement for your Kenyan distributor or retailer — it sits outside import clearance, but it’s worth confirming your buyer already holds one before you rely on them as your route to market.

Glossary

Test Parameters

Still table wine must be tested against the following parameters, per KS EAS 138:2019 Table 1, to demonstrate compliance with the Kenyan standard. Testing must be conducted in an ISO 17025-accredited laboratory.

Physicochemical Requirements (tested per EAS 104 unless noted)

• Ethyl alcohol content: 6.5% – 16.5%
• Total acids, as tartaric acid (wine) or citric acid (fruit wine): minimum 3.5 g/l
• Volatile acids, as acetic acid: maximum 2 g/l
• Total sugar as invert sugar — Dry wine: < 4 g/l
• Total sugar as invert sugar — Medium dry / off-dry: 4–12 g/l
• Total sugar as invert sugar — Semi sweet: 12–45 g/l
• Total sugar as invert sugar — Sweet wine: > 45 g/l
• Sorbic acid: maximum 500 mg/l
• Free sulphur dioxide: maximum 70 mg/l (tested per ISO 5523)
• Total sulphur dioxide: maximum 400 mg/l (tested per ISO 5523)
• Copper: maximum 2.0 mg/l (tested per ISO 7952)

Heavy Metal Contaminants

• Lead: maximum 0.2 mg/l (tested per ISO 12193)

Hygiene / Microbiological

• Produced and handled under hygienic conditions per EAS 39
• Total plate count (for wine under 10% alcohol content): maximum 100 cfu/ml (tested per ISO 4833-1)

Food Additives

• Any additives used must comply with CODEX STAN 192

Labeling Requirements

Standard labeling (KS EAS 138:2019, in addition to EAS 38 general requirements)

• Common name as “wine”, preceded by the fruit name where produced from a fruit other than grape
• Name, physical location, and address of manufacturer, importer, or bottler
• Ethyl alcohol content, % by volume
• Best-before date — required specifically for fruit wine with alcohol content less than 8%
• Net content
• Batch identification number/code
• Declaration of food additives used (e.g. sulphur dioxide, sorbic acid)
• Country of origin
• Statutory warnings — see the health warning requirement below

Health warning label (Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010)

This is a separate, additional legal requirement on top of the standard labeling above, and it’s specific to alcohol — most first-time exporters miss it because it doesn’t appear on food products at all.

• The word “WARNING” in capital letters, followed by the prescribed health warning message
• At least two different warning messages, in English or Kiswahili, rotated across production runs
• Black text on a white background, or white text on a black background
• Enclosed by a rectangular border in the same colour as the warning text
• The warning statement must cover no less than 30% of the total surface area of the package

Expert notes

• The exact wording of each prescribed warning message is set out in the Second Schedule of the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act — pull the current wording directly from the Act or from NACADA before finalizing artwork, rather than guessing at phrasing.
• If your product arrives without a compliant warning label already applied, the importer is legally required to affix a compliant sticker at the point of importation — this is a fallback, not a substitute for getting the label right at origin.
• All labelling must be in English and/or Kiswahili, with dates in dd/mm/yy format.
• All imported goods intended for retail must carry the Import Standardization Mark before being sold into the market — this is affixed after clearance, not before shipment.

What Goes Wrong — Common Failure Modes

These are the specific, recurring reasons wine shipments get held, penalized, or rejected at the Kenyan border. Cross-check each one against your own shipment before you finalize documentation.

Cost Estimate

Worked Example

Wine’s cost structure looks different from most food categories because excise duty is charged per litre of product, not as a percentage of value — which means it can dominate your landed cost regardless of how the wine is priced. Below is an illustrative worked calculation for a 20ft container with an FOB value of USD 30,000. These figures are estimates for planning purposes only — confirm actual duty, excise, and levy rates with a licensed customs agent or via KRA’s binding classification process before finalizing your landed-cost model.

Recommended Next Steps

Start the NACADA import licence application early — it’s a standing licence, not a per-shipment permit, and it now runs through the Kenya National Single Window rather than directly through NACADA.

Confirm your importer of record in Kenya — several steps in Section 3, including excise stamp procurement, cannot proceed without one.

Order excise stamps through your importer’s KRA iTax account early enough that they reach your bottling line before your planned shipment date.

Schedule accredited lab testing early enough that the Certificate of Analysis is ready ahead of conformity assessment inspection.

Pull the exact wording of the prescribed health warning messages from the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act’s Second Schedule before finalizing label artwork.

Have your clearing agent confirm current excise, duty, IDF, and levy rates against your specific HS code before finalizing pricing with your buyer — excise alone can exceed your product’s FOB value.

Want this handled end to end?

• Schedule a call with our compliance experts, or ask about connecting with a vetted clearing agent, NACADA licensing specialist, and testing lab in Kenya.