Furniture, wood & rattan
Handmade paper
Indonesian handmade paper is formed sheet by sheet from agricultural fibres, largely banana stem, mulberry bark and recycled pulp. Every sheet is slightly different, which is the appeal, and it is also the source of every complaint.
How it leaves the country.
- Plain sheets
- Formed and dried flat, sold by sheet size and weight. The base product for stationery and packaging converters.
- Inclusion papers
- Petals, leaves and fibres set into the sheet. Decorative and impossible to make uniform.
- Converted products
- Notebooks, boxes, bags and cards made in the same workshops. A finished-goods purchase with its own quality questions.
- Rolls
- Where a converter needs continuous material. Fewer producers can make it and the variation shows more.
How it is graded.
Judged against an approved reference sheet rather than against a description. Handmade means variation, so the specification is about how much.
- Grammage
- Weight per square metre, with a stated tolerance. Hand forming gives more variation than machine paper and it has to be bounded.
- Fibre
- Banana, mulberry, abaca, recycled pulp or a blend. It decides strength, texture and how the sheet takes ink.
- Sheet dimensions
- Cut tolerance matters to a converter feeding a machine. Loose tolerances turn into waste downstream.
- Surface and sizing
- Whether the sheet is sized for writing or printing. Unsized paper bleeds, which surprises stationery buyers.
- Colour consistency
- Natural and dyed papers both vary between batches. Approve a range rather than a single sheet.
- Strength
- Tear and fold resistance, which matters for bags and packaging and much less for decorative use.
How it is packed.
- Flat in cartons with board
- Paper creases and once creased it is scrap. Corner and edge protection is doing real work.
- Moisture
- Paper takes up humidity and cockles. A sealed liner and a stable stow both matter on a long voyage.
- Volume
- Light and bulky. Freight per kilo is high, so a full container of paper is a large quantity of paper.
- Mould
- Damp paper in a warm container moulds and the damage is total. Dry storage before loading is a specification point.
Where it grows.
Bali
Bali
Workshops making decorative and converted paper products, used to export customers and small runs.
Central Java
Java
Production at greater volume, including recycled fibre papers.
Yogyakarta
Java
Craft workshops with strong design capability and small batch flexibility.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Phytosanitary certificate
- Where the destination treats plant fibre products as requiring it, which depends on the fibre and the processing.1
- Certificate of analysis
- Grammage, dimensions and moisture against the agreed tolerances.
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and the preference scheme in force with Indonesia.
- Fumigation certificate
- Where the destination or the carrier requires treatment for plant fibre goods.
Questions buyers ask.
How much variation is normal?
More than machine paper and less than you might fear from a good workshop. The way to handle it is an approved reference sheet plus a stated tolerance on grammage and dimensions, agreed before production.
Can it go through a printing press?
Some can, and it depends on sizing, thickness tolerance and how flat the sheets are. Test with your actual press before committing to a run, because a paper that jams is worthless however beautiful.
Why did my shipment arrive wavy?
Moisture. Paper absorbs humidity and cockles, and a container crossing the tropics is humid. Sealed packing and dry storage before loading are the fix.
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
- 1Badan Karantina Indonesia, the national quarantine agency. Republic of Indonesia. Checked 3 August 2026.