Japan’s heat-stressed matcha tea output struggles to meet soaring global demand
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Global demand for matcha has surged in recent years, driven by young buyers seeking healthier choices.
PHOTO: AFP
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- Kyoto heatwaves slashed matcha harvest, damaging bushes and reducing yields like farmer Yoshida's, down 25% to 1.5 tonnes.
- Matcha demand surged globally, driven by health trends and social media; Japan's green tea exports rose 25% to 36.4 billion yen in 2024.
- Tencha prices soared 170% at Kyoto auction. New tea fields require five years to mature, indicating further price increases are expected.
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UJI, Japan – Matcha lovers, brace your wallets!
Record temperatures in Japan have curbed matcha green tea production in 2025, straining supplies and driving prices to all-time highs amid booming global demand for the trendy beverage, said farmers and industry officials.
The Kyoto region, which accounts for about a quarter of Japan’s production of tencha – the stemmed leaves dried and ground into matcha – was hit by severe heatwaves last summer during Japan’s hottest year on record, which led to weak yields in the recent April to May harvest.
Mr Masahiro Yoshida, a sixth-generation farmer, was able to harvest only 1.5 tonnes of tencha in 2025, down a quarter from his typical harvest of two tonnes.
“Last year’s summer was so hot that it damaged the bushes, so we couldn’t pluck as many tea leaves,” he said from his storefront in Uji, south of Kyoto.
Global demand for matcha has surged in recent years, driven by millennials and Gen Z buyers seeking healthier choices, with hip cafes globally offering matcha lattes, smoothies and desserts.
The finely ground tea is prized as an antioxidant and for its higher caffeine content than other green teas.
Viral social media traction last autumn turbocharged demand, prompting some wholesalers such as Singapore-based Tealife to occasionally impose purchase limits.
Mr Yuki Ishii, Tealife’s founder, said matcha demand from its customers grew tenfold in 2024, and is still rising, even as the amount available from Japan is declining. “I’m basically always out of stock,” he said.
Japan produced 5,336 tonnes of tencha in 2024, according to the Japanese Tea Production Association, a nearly 2.7-fold increase from 10 years earlier, as more farmers switched to the crop.
But the association said it expects lower matcha output in 2025.
“I think many were hoping for a higher yield harvest this year to reduce some of the shortages but it doesn’t seem like this is going to be the case,” said Mr Marc Falzon, who buys tea from Uji farmers for his New Jersey-based milling company, Ooika.
Japan’s green tea exports, including matcha, rose 25 per cent by value to 36.4 billion yen (S$321 million) in 2024, driven largely by growing demand for powdered teas such as matcha, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. By volume, Japan’s green tea exports rose 16 per cent.
Tencha prices have climbed to record highs, with a May auction in Kyoto fetching 8,235 yen per kg, a 170 per cent increase from a year earlier and well above the record 4,862 yen set in 2016, according to the Global Japanese Tea Association.
Japanese producers are trying to increase matcha output, but that will not solve the current shortage as the new fields they are planting need five years before they can be harvested, Mr Falzon said.
“I suspect we’ll see even more dramatic price increases.” REUTERS
