
Our story
Made in our own workshops
Founded in 1998, Rao Exports makes handcrafted terracotta, stone and paper mache at export scale — without the trading-house layer that usually sits between a buyer and the workshop.
A manufacturer, not an agent
Most handicraft “exporters” are trading houses. They take your order, place it with whoever is cheapest that month, and pass on whatever comes back. When a shipment fails, there is nobody to hold.
We own the terracotta and stone workshops in Neemrana and Kishangarh and run trained cluster units for painting and finishing. When a glaze is off or a batch cracks in the kiln, we know which workshop and we fix it. When a date slips, we tell you before you find out from your freight forwarder.
Local clay, local stone
Rajasthan sits on the clay beds and the marble belt. We buy both within a short haul of the workshops, which keeps cost down and lets us hold body and colour consistent batch to batch.
We are not sentimental about it. Cutting slurry is dewatered and sent on to tile and cement makers, and small stone offcut goes into coasters and inlay rather than a skip. The cost case and the waste case point the same way, which is the only reason it holds.
Artisans on the books
1,200+ artisans and craftworkers — potters, stone carvers and painters — on published piece rates paid by bank transfer. Not a co-op we buy from occasionally: a network we recruit, train, quality-check and pay directly.

28 yrs
Exporting handicraft since 1998
1,200+
Artisans & craftworkers
How we got here
1998
Founded in Neemrana as a terracotta workshop supplying domestic wholesalers.
2004
First direct export container of garden terracotta to a European nursery chain.
2011
Marble and stone workshop added at Kishangarh; the tabletop range launches.
2016
Artisan payments formalised — piece rates published, moved to bank transfer.
2020
Paper mache brought in-house with a painting studio in Jaipur.
2026
1,200+ artisans and craftworkers across four Rajasthan clusters, shipping to 32 countries.
Come and see the workshop
Buyers and auditors are welcome in Neemrana, announced or unannounced. We will arrange the transfer from Delhi — about two hours by road.