Stationery Industry in China

We do stationery in this process is to slowly learn, accept and develop, and then to create our made in China brand,

so that the stationery brand to the world." Yiwu International Trade City merchant Chen boss said.

Stationery is cultural utensils, including office stationery and learning stationery. According to the product form, 

stationery can be divided into pen, ink, paper stationery, teaching supplies, etc. According to the functional use 

can be divided into office stationery, writing tools, student stationery, and other cultural and educational supplies.

A stationery shop in Yiwu Trade City Source: Member of the group of travelers

China's stationery industry has a long history of development. In the early stage of China's development, there were 

fewer domestic manufacturers and their products were more dependent on imports.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the beginning of reform and opening up, some European and American 

stationery companies transferred their manufacturing links to China, which led to the rapid development of the domestic 

stationery industry.

"I started a stationery border trade in 1996." Chen, a stationery merchant in Yiwu Trade City, said. When he started in 1996, 

he mainly exported goods to Southeast Asia and other countries, and then gradually expanded the customer range to 

Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries and regions. As he continued to develop clients bit by bit, he also gradually 

obtained licenses from European and American companies - in 2003, he got a license from Disney.

After that, the stationery industry continued to develop steadily with the support of national policies and driven by multiple 

factors such as consumption upgrading, forming a stationery industry cluster.

According to data from the Census Center of the National Bureau of Statistics, Chinese cultural products manufacturing 

enterprises and brands are mainly distributed in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places, such as document processing 

(covering folders, brochures, etc.) stationery manufacturers are mainly concentrated in Chaoyang, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and 

other places in Guangdong; Pens, teaching AIDS, long tail clips, staplers, glue and other stationery manufacturers are concentrated 

in Ningbo, Wenzhou, Yiwu and other places in Zhejiang province. [1] Among the 47 merchants I visited,28 merchants mainly 

selling highlighters or watercolor pens have factories in Wenzhou, and 16 merchants mainly selling neutral pens or notebooks 

have factories in Yiwu.

Present situation of stationery foreign trade in China

Nowadays, the export of Chinese stationery products covers various countries and regions on all continents.

China Customs data show that in 2020, China's stationery exports reached 35.08 billion yuan, the main markets include: 

Russia, Spain, Hungary and other European countries, as well as Paraguay, Brazil and other South American countries.

Yiwu, as the "capital of small commodities in the world", is an important distribution center for stationery exports.

"I myself did not think that in Yiwu this place, you can export your own things to many countries in the world." I've been here 

for about 25 years and I've dealt with at least 50 to 80 countries in the world." In the face of the development of Yiwu stationery 

foreign trade, a stationery shop owner said.

According to statistics, at present, the annual scale of stationery factories in Yiwu market reaches 11 billion, of which 7 billion 

are foreign trade and export orders, and 4 billion are domestic trade and brand OEM [2].

Walking among the shops in the three districts of Yiwu Trade City, you can see products printed in various languages: Chinese, 

English, Spanish, Arabic and so on. Among the 47 stationery merchants visited, the total number of countries or regions exported 

reached more than 80.

Stationery products exported from China have many advantages, showing the characteristics of diversity, security, personalization 

and so on.

In terms of diversity, Chinese merchants continue to introduce products that are suitable for different scenarios.

"Now we've derived a lot of things, which used to be like water pens and now fabric pens, but now it's all very elaborate." 

Chen, a stationery merchant in Yiwu Trade City, said.

He says there are many more types of pens than before. For example, the fabric pen is painted on the clothes, the water-

based marker uses acrylic paint to draw on the stone, the glitter pen has a glitter effect, and the metallic marker is metallic.

At the same time, more and more consumers pay attention to the safety of stationery.

In the early stage of stationery development, practical functionality is the focus of many stationery businesses and consumers, 

such as whether it can be smoothly out of ink, whether it can write smooth words, whether it is comfortable to use these issues.

As the international requirements become gradually stricter, more Chinese stationery businesses have also begun to pay attention 

to the security of stationery.

There are many international standards for measuring stationery safety. For example, the United States Hazardous Art Materials 

Labeling Regulation (ASTM D-4236 LHAMA), the United Kingdom Pencil and Drawing Tools 1998 S.I. 2406 - Toxic Elements in 

Writing Tools, Chemical Safety Technical Specification (MSDS), Toxicity Risk Assessment (TRA), Microbial Limit Testing (USP) 61,BP/EP 16B), 

cadmium content test (EU REACH Annex XVII item 23), lead content test (EU REACH Annex XVII item 63,CCPSA SOR/2018-83), 

efficacy test for preservatives (USP 51, BP/EP 16C), etc.

In China, the "General Requirements for the Safety of student Supplies" was formally implemented in 2008, which put forward 

standard requirements for stationery safety and the basis for stationery testing standards.

"In the past, when we picked up this pen, we thought of the function, and we wrote on it. So what will happen if you take the 

lid off and the child eats it?" Yiwu Trade City stationery merchant Chen boss mentioned.

He said that in the early years, people thought that a sealed lid could effectively protect the pen tip and reduce ink evaporation. 

However, for foreign stationery merchants, this cover with holes can better prevent the blockage of the trachea caused by children's 

ingestion. "Slowly improve the safety of stationery, which is what I learned from foreigners," Chen said.

In terms of personalization, in addition to meeting the basic practicality, more consumers pay attention to the packaging and culture 

of the stationery itself.

According to the survey results of a German business research institute on the promotion market,59% of stationery distributors 

hope to highlight the personalization of products, which can be seen that the pursuit of personalization has increasingly become a 

direction of current stationery consumption.

"Packaging is also a profitable point," Chen said. "You can see that packaging is becoming more colorful and diverse."

Product packaging is a very important part of the entire marketing process. Packaging design was originally designed to protect 

products, and now it plays a very important role in brand identity. Stationery packaging is a silent salesman in the stationery market, 

it is the first side of student stationery display, is a key factor affecting consumer purchase.

He mentioned that stationery packaging is increasingly "bulky" and "bright", which is easy for consumers to see at a glance.

In addition, China's stationery exports are also meeting the different needs of consumers in different countries and regions for stationery.

It is understood that customers in Middle Eastern countries tend to prefer gold. 44.29% of the stationery products sold to Turkey are 

gold-plated. For Spain, due to the commercial promotion method of giving each other small gifts printed with corporate logos is 

increasingly popular in Spain, small stationery with custom logos and low prices are more popular.

Stationery sold to different countries in addition to the language will be different, some patterns, functions will also be adjusted. 

For example, in some functional fields, books sent to Middle Eastern countries have removed the mini-calendar and replaced it with a 

horizontal line.

A stationery shop owner also gave an example of actual sales. Many years ago, when doing domestic stationery sales, many businesses 

would print Huanzhu Gege's photo on the pen packaging to meet the market demand. However, when it was exported to Middle Eastern countries, 

due to religious factors, the pattern of Huanzhu Ge Ge was replaced by other patterns.