Global Matcha Boom May Taste ‘Bittersweet’ to Tea Growers Who Face Pressure to Switch to Producing Tencha

By Keiko Yamaguchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

11:55 JST, May 18, 2025

The blue sky of May, the green of the new tea leaves and the scarlet sashes of women harvesting tea — these images, come to the minds of many Japanese when picturing tea picking. Yet, many tea fields may be covered with black sheets in the near future due to farmers growing the raw material for matcha, tencha, which requires reduced sunlight, as a result of the global matcha boom.

The Uji area in southern Kyoto Prefecture is known as one of the leading matcha production centers in Japan. Many signs and flags saying “matcha” can be seen around Byodoin temple, a World Heritage Site, in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. As cafes are full everywhere, tourists who are unable to find seating stroll down the front approach to the temple with a matcha latte or soft serve in their hands.

Near JR Uji Station, dozens of foreign tourists lined up in front of tea seller Nakamura Tokichi Honten Co.’s cafe, which has been renovated from a tea factory, waiting to order matcha flavored parfaits and chocolates.

“We started developing our own sweets in 1998 after tea sales became slow because we thought we should do something other than selling tea leaves,” said the sixth-generation owner, Tokichi Nakamura, 73. “I’m amazed to see how we have succeeded in less than 30 years.”

The boom began in 1996 with the launch of green tea flavored ice cream by American brand Haagen-Dazs. The authentic product is made mainly from the tea leaves that are picked first in a season. “All the tea farmers in Uji were impressed with the taste,” Nakamura said. “That was the shift from drinking to eating.”

Today, major confectionery makers and convenience stores have developed their own unique products. Matcha is used in a vast variety of products, such as matcha-flavored fresh confectioneries, snacks and beverages.

Production of tencha increasing

The popularity of matcha sweets has led to a great deal of interest in and expectations for matcha itself, and domestic production of tencha continues to rise. According to the Japanese Association of Tea Production, tencha production has nearly tripled from 1,452 tons in 2008 to 4,176 tons in 2023 in 11 production centers.

The export of green tea, which includes powdered tea such as matcha, is also increasing. According to the Finance Ministry’s trade statistics, exports reached a record high of ¥36.4 billion in 2024, 11 times the number of exports 15 years ago. Powdered tea, such as matcha, accounts for more than 70% of the total.

Concerns over popularity

Amid rising demand for matcha, tea growers are facing a shortage of successors. The number of tea farms has plummeted from 46,000 to 20,000 over the past 15 years. In March, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry put together a policy to encourage tea farmers to switch from sencha to tencha. Sencha is a common type of tea grown without covering and drunk using a teapot.

“We are taking the matcha boom as an opportunity and focusing on it as tea farmers’ main source of income,” said an official in charge. “We would like to transmit information on Japanese tea culture both at home and abroad.”

While welcoming the boom, tea producers have expressed concerns about the massive popularity of matcha. “I saw prices online that were triple the original prices, but there’s nothing I can do,” said a person in the tea industry. To prevent reselling, some shops decided to limit the number of items that can be purchased at a time. Even so, there are still buyers who come every day. Also, inferior products are reportedly being sold in the market.

“Tea producers hope that young people and children who eat sweets will drink matcha as adults. I hope that the image of the matcha cultivated by Uji will not be destroyed,” said Hiroshi Sugimoto, 68, director of the Japanese garden research institute at Kyoto University of the Arts.

The switch from sencha to tencha also raises concerns. “The switch will be expensive and time consuming. It’ll be a high hurdle for individuals and small and mid-sized farmers,” said Fumitoshi Fujita, 72, executive director of the Japan Tea Commerce & Industry Cooperative Association. If other countries start growing tencha, price competition will naturally intensify.

Keiichi Fukui, 60, the fifth-generation owner of Fukubun-Seichajo, a tea producer and wholesaler in Uji, remembers a story passed down from the first-generation owner. Between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, there was a matcha boom. But with the spread of coffee and black tea, there was a matcha surplus starting in the late 1960s. The survival strategy at that time was to “continue spending a lot of time and effort to make delicious matcha.” This was a precious lesson learned through the boom.