Schleich - made where?

Earlier today I bought a new Schleich pinto horse. When I examined it, on the belly instead of saying "Made in China" it had "Made in Tunisia". I'm curious - when did the company move their production line out of China?

They still have a lot made in China

They had/have production in Tunesia, Portugal, China, Bosnia, Romania, and Germany of course.. I probably forgot some ?

We have a topic about it here : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

What I don't get and maybe Roger has an answer, is the Portugal choice. Sure the wages in Portugal are not as high as in central and north Europe but still the currency is the same as "mother" Germany and the difference in total cost can't be that significant...
Of course they save on custom expenses when the final product is for the European market, but still the total cost has to be higher than Asia or non EU countries. The only reason I can think of is that they might be using the Maia and Borges facilities and didn't have to build or buy new ones..

Especially in 2019 lots of figures were made in Portugal. I don't know about 2020 models since I have none yet.
Also some Papo's models are made in Portugal..

Portugal, - that is the Maya & Borges business
They and Schleich have been business partners for ages !
For instance they produced (made ?)  the Tropical Fish series for Schleich, but also many others.

They still also make some of the old Schleich models, but now in their own name, or in co-operation with Science 4You  

I am sure Roger can add further info to this

I love collecting some of the Schleich figures made in different countries due to the paint work almost always being distinct per country. The ones made in Germany are my favorite since they always look exactly like the stock photo then.

Hmm.. I believe the China models are most of the times better painted than the German ones but I'm not as experienced as you in collecting animal models..so I might be wrong.

My experience is that there is no way to tell where they are made, unless you look at the stamp

Sure, I'm judging just from the comparison thread here on STS.

I just noticed something that I never noticed before : Schleich has begun to write ( for instance )

Designed in Germany, made in China

That's similar to what Mojo do... they put Designed in the UK, made in China. Here's some info on where Schleich figures are made: The accessories made are nearly all done in Bosnia, the African elephants of 2016 were done in Tunisia as well as the 2017 Asian elephants.

also some items: made in vietnam now
f.e. rabbit, cats and fox

Which ones?

made in Vietnam wird immer mehr:
Paint horse Family, Knabstrupper, Andalusier heute gefunden

Also many of the Schleich McDonald's figures are also made in Vietnam

This is such an interesting topic!!
Yes, Schleich now seem to have models made from so many other different countries- and I've found that some of their horses made in places like Bosnia/ Tunisia seem to be made of quite bendy poor quality plastic- but maybe these were just exceptions! And I don't seem to come across many Schleich models these days that were actually made in Germany- but then I'm mostly limited to the dogs with this judgement!

When I was a child, Schleich models were made in Germany, but were painted in Tunesia. I think most of the Schleich models sold in Germany were marked as Made in Germany. It's because many germans love to buy german things. But even in the 90ies, the dinosaurs came from China and the sea life models came from Portugal. Today, I know, that my favourite Schleich models were originally made by Maia & Borges.