Authorities in east China's Shandong Province have shut down workshops for producing and selling fake tissue paper labeled as various known brands, according to the Beijing News on Monday.

More than 10 brands had been counterfeited, including Xuezhu, Jingfu and Yuanjie, said officials with Pingyuan county's administration for industry and commerce which raided local workshops on Oct. 27.

In a single workshop in Shandong's Pingyuan county, officials confiscated more than 2,000 fake certification labels and 90,000 brand stickers of the Xuezhu brand.

Owners of the workshop refused to say how they obtained the fake labels. They claimed to have taken orders from the company which owns the brand, but failed to provide any evidence of authorization.

The counterfeit products were of low quality and were sold at lower prices. They were usually packaged in the same way as the genuine items and all the labels on them said they were made from "100 percent virgin pulp."

However, according to an investigation conducted by Baoma paper company in northwest China's Gansu province, owner of Xuezhu brand, counterfeit tissue paper was made from a mixture of straw and recycled paper pulps.

It only costs the workshop 7 yuan (1.1 U.S. dollars) to produce a pack of counterfeit Xuezhu tissue, about half the production cost for genuine ones, said an employee of the company in charge of the investigation.

He added that a workshop can produce as many as 40 tonnes of tissue paper per month.

Local authorities said they will conduct further investigations.