How High Temperatures Have Caused Mass Matcha Supply Issues

The rising global demand for matcha has proven too high for Japanese farmers.

With the product becoming an increasingly popular flavour for drinks and deserts, people around the world cannot get enough of it.

But this recent consumer spike, alongside high temperatures, has fuelled a global shortage, for the first time ever.

High consumer demand

Matcha’s rise in popularity has triggered a global shortage, resulting in increasingly high prices. 

Tencha, stemmed leaves which are dried and ground up to make matcha, have seen a year–on-year 170% price surge at a Kyoto auction.

At the auction in May, tencha was selling for 8,235 yen per kg (US$55.45), 170% up from last year, and beating the previous record of 4,862 yen (US$32.74) per kg from 2016. 

According to the Japanese Tea Production Association, 5,336 tons of tencha was produced by Japan in 2024 – a significant increase from 10 years prior.

Japan’s overall green tea exports grew dramatically in 2024, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.  

By volume, Japan’s green tea exports, including matcha, saw a 16% increase. Similarly, exports had a 25% rise in value to 36.4bn yen ((US$252m).

Matcha has become an increasingly popular beverage, due to its higher caffeine content than other green teas and its status as an antioxidant. 

Demand from countries around the world is too high for Japan’s 2030 export target of 15,000 tons. 

A spokesperson from the government of Kyoto Prefecture explains: "It is difficult to calculate specific figures [regarding shortfall] because we are turning down exceptionally large orders from countries with high demand for tea, such as the United States, Germany and Dubai."

A supply issue

Whilst high consumer demand is driving this shortage, there has also been significant issues with matcha production, which has contributed to the overall issue.

Record temperatures in Japan last summer also put a strain on production, resulting in further issues with supply.

The Kyoto region, where approximately 25% of Japan’s tencha production occurs, faced severe heatwaves last summer. 

This led to weak yields in the April-May harvest across the region.

Masahiro Yoshida, a sixth-generation farmer explained: "Last year's summer was so hot that it damaged the bushes, so we couldn't pluck as many tea leaves.”

His typical harvest usually yields 2 tonnes of tencha but, this year, it was down 25% to 1.5 tonnes. 

Although new fields are being planted as a result of the increased demand, they need five years before they can be harvested, meaning matcha output won’t see an improvement for a while.

An unsustainable trend

With its own online community, dubbed ‘MatchaTok’, matcha’s global shortage is resulting in debates across the social media platform TikTok. 

Matcha-lovers who share their love of the product online are lamenting over the shortage and turning on one another about hoarding products or wasting it. 

Shops in Japan have begun setting limits as to how many tins of matcha people can buy. 

Anna Poian, Co-founder of the Global Japanese Tea Association, comments: "For the first time in history, we are experiencing a matcha shortage, since autumn of last year.”

She continues to explain that the tourism industry has faced a significant boom post-Covid-19, exacerbating the shortage.

"Many foreigners would buy lots of matcha to bring back home as souvenirs, sometimes even in bulk or sometimes, we've heard, to resell."

Though farmers are already taking those steps to increase production and supply, the ever-increasing demand is proving unsustainable, and farmers cannot keep up.

This intense hoarding of matcha has only increased the problem, especially as we wait until the new fields can become fully established.