For many consumers, the moniker Made in China might have negative connotations. After all, what was wrong with Made in England, eh? With production of everything from the traditional Dr Martens boot to some of the M&S clothing range now being outsourced to the manufacturing superpower, people can be forgiven for going “Humph – I want something made in my own country.”

Personally speaking, I’ve banged on several times about “seasonal plastic tat made in China" within this blog. But that doesn’t mean that being made in China is invariably bad.

As readers of this blog will know, I’ve spent time in Spain (I write regularly about Spanish matters for an English magazine). Within Spain, there’s now a proliferation of what’s known as tiendas de Chino (Chinese shops). Some 5-6,000 Chinese ex-pats run stores within Malaga province alone.

Although the local Spanish storeowners may fear the cut-price competition, shoppers tend to love the tiendas de Chino, which are generally run by entrepreneurial and hard-working proprietors: this is why they’ve done so well. Imagine Poundstretcher or Poundland but with a much vaster, better and cheaper range of products – including school materials, art supplies, electrical goods, gadgets, home and garden wares, clothes, footwear, kids’ toys and games, sewing and knitting supplies, pet supplies and just about everything else you can imagine, all at knock-down prices.

Recently, in a tienda de Chino, I spotted the same bra I’d purchased in a Newhaven factory outlet during January 2012. However, it cost 1.40 Euros compared to the £8 I’d paid for a discount product – a substantial difference. This bra is clearly exported to UK retailers.

And, while Maplin sells an iPhone car and home charger kit for a hefty £20, the local tienda de Chino has a muy similar one for 4.50 Euros. Sturdy ceramic frying pans sold in the UK for £25 cost 9 Euros in the tienda de Chino. Mobile phone screen protectors that cost stupid prices in the UK (£10 for a sheet of sticky plastic – you what?) cost a Euro or two from the horse’s mouth.

Really, customers can’t grumble. Sometimes, the tiendas de Chino sell jumpers featuring cashmere for 8 Euros. Apparently, the flood of cheap cashmere from China into the US market has been significant and it could happen in other countries too.

For those who don’t have a handy tienda de Chino, eBay supplies goods made in China to world-wide buyers but without the premium prices added by third-party merchants. I believe that consumers will increasingly reject the middleman – i.e. UK stores that charge inflated prices for products that were produced for a few cents in China – and start going directly to the Chinese merchants themselves.

On eBay, it’s possible to buy everything from Chinese-produced mobile phone chargers and batteries to binoculars, camera bodies and lenses – all at good prices.

Another symptom (some would say advantage) of UK companies outsourcing their production to China is the proliferation of copycat goods that are often identical to the originals, because they were made in the same factory and shipped out the back door.

A search on eBay rapidly reveals copycat Doctor Marten boots which look as attractive as the original but with a much lower price. And this is only one of countless examples.

Sarah Nelson, a friend in Kuala Lumpur (capital of Malaysia, located geographically south of China), reports that it’s possible to buy everything from fake Louis Vuitton bags to fake Sony TVs. She says: “The fakes are sometimes identical, sometimes originals shipped out of the back door of the factory, and sometimes terrible.

"I bought a Mulberry purse on the market for £2, in the packaging, and it looked amazing. However, I didn’t check it and when I got home, it was vinyl covered cardboard!

"The general consensus is that, if it’s made in China, there’s a fake version. The factories either make extra copies or they make a cheaper equivalent.”

She adds: “If you visit Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur, there’s every designer good you can imagine - from Chloe, Louise Vuitton, Mulberry, Gucci, to DM, Nike, Adidas, bags, sunglasses, shoes, purses, wallets, clothes... it's endless.

"Some dealers have a 'fake' catalogue of each designer, i.e. Gucci, which shows all the bags available and the prices. You can choose which fake you want and they’ll get it for you. Depending on how good you are at haggling, a purse will cost between £2-8 and a bag £20-40.”

So, while UK and international companies are enjoying cheap production costs by outsourcing to China, they’re also leaving their product open to the creation of identical fakes and, perhaps, diluting their brand as a result.

In a way, the tables are turning on big business seeking cheap labour. Looking at it sensibly, it’s illogical to pay through the nose to have a designer label sewn into a handbag or a brand name stamped on to a TV when identical goods from the same factory at a knock-down price are available through direct channels, such as the internet.

For corporates, it seems that the Made in China moniker comes at a price after all, while consumers will end up benefitting from cheaper goods and wider choice.

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