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Marble inlay being hand-cut and set at a workshop bench

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.

A potter trimming a thrown pot in the workshop

28 yrs

Exporting handicraft since 1998

1,200+

Artisans & craftworkers

How we got here

  1. 1998

    Founded in Neemrana as a terracotta workshop supplying domestic wholesalers.

  2. 2004

    First direct export container of garden terracotta to a European nursery chain.

  3. 2011

    Marble and stone workshop added at Kishangarh; the tabletop range launches.

  4. 2016

    Artisan payments formalised — piece rates published, moved to bank transfer.

  5. 2020

    Paper mache brought in-house with a painting studio in Jaipur.

  6. 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.

Arrange a Visit