Matcha tea, a powdered Japanese inexperienced tea, has develop into a cultural phenomenon within the West, a lot in order that its reputation has resulted in a worldwide provide downside.
Western shoppers have thirsted for the well being choice in recent times, a pattern skyrocketed by social media—particularly by means of Tik Tok. At the identical time, Japan has skilled a mass tourism rise within the post-pandemic years—in 2024, Japan welcomed a record-breaking 36.9 million worldwide guests, surpassing the earlier file of 31.9 million in 2019 — resulting in many mass tea corporations and native distributors to report shortages of provide.
Back in October 2024, two well-known matcha corporations—Ippodo and Marukyu Koyamaen—restricted and/or stopped promoting sure sorts of matcha, citing brief provides.
“Dear customers, We have been receiving an unexpected high volume of orders during the past few months. Taking production scale and capacity into consideration, we regrettably announce that availability for all Matcha products, regardless size and packaging type, will be limited from now on,” Marukyu Koyamaen’s website still reads.
Matcha comes from the identical plant that many various teas come from— the camellia sinensis. The camella sinensis leaves may be made into inexperienced tea, oolong tea, and black tea. Though matcha originates from China, it has develop into carefully related and rooted in Japanese tradition.
Matcha is a sort of inexperienced tea, however the processing, kind and style differs considerably, and is made particularly from tencha, a shaded inexperienced leaf tea. Matcha additionally solely makes up a small quantity of Japanese tea manufacturing—simply 6%—according to the Global Japanese Tea Association.
Yet, the demand has skyrocketed. And consequently, costs have additionally soared.
According to Forbes, the matcha market is predicted to hit about $5 billion by 2028, an anticipated development of greater than 10% since 2023. Further, the Japanese agriculture ministry has reported that the 2024 tencha output was over 2.5 times higher than 2014. The query is whether or not elevated demand, small farmers attempting to fulfill this demand, and a crop that’s closely depending on climate patterns can sustain, even because the spring matcha harvest makes an attempt to make up for the shortages of the previous 12 months.
This 12 months, although, the Kyoto area of Japan, which accounts for a big proportion of tencha harvest, was hit with a scorching and dry harvest season, say farmers within the space.
In 2025, Zach Mangan, founding father of Kettl Tea, a Brooklyn-based firm specializing in high-quality teas imported straight from farms in Japan, referred to as this 12 months’s harvest a “high-quality but lower-yielding harvest” in a blog post in May of this year—the form of harvest that may increase demand and decrease availability, doubtlessly elevating costs even additional.
Read More: The Surprising Reason Your Groceries Are More Expensive
According to the Global Japanese Tea Association, the common value for tencha in late April reached 8,235 yen per kilogram, which is 1.7 occasions increased than final 12 months’s common. And in accordance with producers, that may solely be anticipated to proceed.
“Over the past year, demand for matcha has grown beyond all expectations,” Ippodo updates prospects on July 18. “Unfortunately, supply constraints are likely to continue.”