Furniture, wood & rattan
Indonesian ceramics
Indonesia makes tableware, planters and decorative ceramics, with Bali and Central Java as the design and production centres. Anything intended for food carries a migration requirement on the glaze, and that is set by your destination rather than by the maker.
How it leaves the country.
- Tableware
- Plates, bowls and serving pieces. Food contact rules apply and the glaze is what they apply to.
- Planters and garden
- Larger pieces where frost resistance and drainage matter more than glaze chemistry.
- Decorative
- Vases and objects outside food contact, judged on finish and on consistency between pieces.
How it is graded.
Ceramics have no grade table. What a contract does is fix an approved sample, name the acceptable variation and settle the food contact question before production rather than after.
- The glaze is the compliance question
- Lead and cadmium migration limits apply to anything used with food, and they are set by the destination. Establish them before a glaze is chosen.
- Variation is normal
- Handmade and small batch ceramics vary in colour and size between firings. What is negotiable is how much, and it belongs in writing.
- What to specify
- Body, glaze, dimensions and tolerance, colour range against an approved sample, and whether the piece is food safe, microwave safe and dishwasher safe.
How it is packed.
- Breakage
- The dominant cost risk. Packing specification deserves as much attention as the product, and a drop test on the pack is cheap insurance.
- Wood packaging
- Crates and pallets are treated and marked under ISPM 15, separately from the ceramics1
Where it grows.
Bali
Bali
Design-led studios and workshops aimed at hospitality and retail.
Central Java
Java
Volume production, including the long-established pottery districts.
West Java
Java
Tableware and decorative production feeding the same exporters.
Origins with a protected name.
Names the trade contracts on, most of them on the Indonesian register of geographical indications.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Food contact declaration
- For anything used with food, covering glaze migration against your destination's limits, backed by a test report.
- Test report
- On the actual glaze and body rather than a general datasheet. Ask for the laboratory and the method.
- ISPM 15 treatment mark
- On the crating and pallets, which are the only wood in the consignment.1
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and on the preference scheme in force.
Questions buyers ask.
Is Indonesian tableware food safe?
It depends on the glaze, and food safe is a claim that has to be tested against your market's migration limits. Establish the requirement before the glaze is chosen, because a fired piece cannot be reglazed to comply.
Why is my repeat order a different colour?
Because glaze and firing vary between batches, especially in small kilns. Approve a physical reference, keep a retained piece, and write the acceptable range around it.
How do I reduce breakage?
Specify the pack rather than leaving it to the maker, and test it. Most breakage traces to inner packing rather than to the carton, and it is far cheaper to fix before the first container than after.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Tell us what you need.
Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.
Sources
- 1ISPM 15, regulation of wood packaging material in international trade. International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), FAO. Checked 3 August 2026.