(Yicai Global) May 17 -- Many Russian craftsmen are trying out the China market to sell their handmade figurines as escalating international embargos block their normal sales routes on US and European platforms.

Many newly created accounts by Russian craftsmen can be found on the Chinese lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu when searching for the words ‘handmade Russian doll.’ Most were set up in late March and early April and quickly gathered hundreds of followers.

“I attracted more than 3,000 followers on Xiaohongshu in the first two weeks without doing any promotions,” Anna Volkova, who makes figurines such as teddy bears, pandas, and squirrels, told Yicai Global. “They bought all of my products and some ordered a month in advance. On average, Chinese buyers are younger than those in the US and Europe.”

Making handmade dolls is a painstaking process and production is slow. Many are labeled ‘OOAK,’ meaning ‘one of a kind’ and can fetch prices of up to tens of thousands of yuan, equivalent to thousands of US dollars, much higher than those produced on assembly lines.

Before, the only way Chinese customers could buy handmade dolls was on websites such as Instagram and Tedsby. On Tedsby, which specializes in handmade teddy bears, 1,025 out of its 1,641 registered craftsmen are from Russia.

There are not many handmade doll enthusiasts in China and the market is still at an exploratory stage, several industry insiders told Yicai Global. There need to be improvements in price transparency and payment security, they said.

A lady surnamed Fu has been running a shop selling handmade Russian dolls on Alibaba Group Holding’s e-commerce site Taobao since early 2021. She mainly sells fantasy creatures and has nearly 20,000 fans.

“The market is relatively young in China, so there are many problems. But, as time goes by, we hope to find more reliable sources,” a customer told Yicai Global. She bought a Russian handmade teddy bear in late March on Xiaohongshu but has yet to receive it due to the logistical bottlenecks posed by the recent Covid-19 outbreaks. “I am still waiting for my bear,” she said on May 6.

Editor: Kim Taylor