An exhibition hall at Xiamen Union Arts Co Ltd, an oil painting producer in Xiamen, Fujian province. Xiamen is one of the biggest places that massively produce oil paintings in China. [Photo/China Daily]

Due to these pressures in traditional markets, oil painting companies are increasingly turning their attention toward emerging markets.

"Asia, South Africa, and South America are highlights of our overseas business," said Zhuang Deyi, chairman of Xiamen Union Arts Co Ltd, an oil painting producer in the city.

Emerging markets, such as Russia, India, Argentina and Brazil, account for 20 to 30 percent of the city's total sales of oil paintings, said Zhuang, who also heads Xiamen's association of oil painting companies.

Driven by demand from emerging markets, exports of paintings - mainly oil paintings - from Xiamen increased more than 70 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, reaching $7.4 million, according to Xiamen municipal bureau of commerce.

The domestic market, also an emerging one, is growing at an even faster rate, Zhuang said, with demand coming from hotels, clubs and individual customers with higher incomes.

"Before 2006, almost no company in Xiamen focused on the Chinese market. But now, about 40 percent of the oil paintings made here are sold domestically."

It is a similar story in Dafen. Domestic sales, which have increased rapidly, now account for around half of the market, according to Dafen village administrative office.

Up the value chain

But despite these new opportunities in emerging markets, oil painting producers in China face the same challenges as their counterparts in other manufacturing sectors, such as low added value, a lack of sales networks and branding.

Commercial paintings used to be reproductions of famous works of art or certain patterns that orders designated, and most of them remain so. But the ability to produce replicas, with low added value, is not enough.

Lin from Putian said the industry could learn some lessons from the clothing industry.

"It starts with research and development," he said.

"A producer of paintings should find a good selling point - the colors, styles, and aspects that are most popular at the moment, and then provide his own designs."

Providing a self-developed product adds value, and gives the company more bargaining power.

"A Claude Monet replica may be sold for 200 yuan, but if you refer to Monet's use of color and at the same time, come up with your own composition, the painting may be worth 500 yuan," he said.

Yao Dingkang, an international trade expert, said oil paintings should be designed according to their final use, for example, with different series for home decoration, restaurants, hotels and churches. This will be more targeted compared with the current classification of subjects and styles, he wrote earlier in a commentary on the industry.