China's "porcelain capital" facilitates exports for smaller merchants

NANCHANG, April 23 (Xinhua) -- A batch of exquisite craft ceramics from small ceramics businesses in Jingdezhen, a world-famous "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, left the city on Wednesday, heading for Dubai.

Exports of this batch of 175 pieces of exquisite craft ceramics, weighing 0.96 tonnes and worth 805,000 yuan (about 117,087 U.S. dollars), showcase Jingdezhen's on-going efforts to facilitate ceramics exports of small and micro-sized merchants.

It is the first batch of goods officially exported from Jingdezhen through its pilot market procurement trade mode, which features fast customs clearance and VAT exemption. The Jingdezhen ceramic trading market was approved in September 2022, and was among the sixth batch of pilots for market procurement trade in the country.

Fang Junmu, who runs a ceramic company, said that the market procurement trade has helped lower the threshold for exports, and he can pack the products and complete the declaration at home, with lower export costs. "I never thought I could sell my ceramic products all over the world from home," he said.

With thousands of years of porcelain-making history behind it, Jingdezhen has the most complete handmade porcelain system in the world, drawing the attention of both domestic and foreign customers to personalized porcelain.

Jingdezhen has a permanent resident population of more than 1.6 million, with one out of 10 people engaged in the ceramic industry. There are more than 10,000 ceramic and related enterprises and more than 15,000 self-employed businesses.

According to Yi Guangying, director of a ceramic art center in Jingdezhen, the market procurement trade has successfully connected individual needs from all over the world with tens of thousands of small and micro-sized ceramics enterprises and manual workshops in Jingdezhen.

"Foreign ceramic art lovers can purchase their favorite works in Jingdezhen more conveniently, and the international influence of our ceramic culture will also be significantly enhanced," said Yi.

At present, Jingdezhen has established friendly relations with more than 180 cities in 72 countries around the world.

Liu Zhao, director of Jingdezhen Customs, said that the customs will continue to optimize the business environment, actively explore the innovation mechanism for supervision and service, and constantly expand the market procurement trade mode, helping to spread ceramic culture around the world.