Matcha used to live inside the tea ceremony and the wagashi shop. Now it is on cafe menus and supermarket shelves around the world, and the pull of that demand has started to move the price of tea leaves inside Japan.

Matcha Takes Over the World

Matcha lattes, matcha ice cream, matcha chocolate, matcha skincare. The range keeps widening, with demand growing fastest in the United States, Europe, China and Southeast Asia.

According to Ministry of Finance trade statistics, green tea exports reached a record of about 36.4 billion yen in 2024, roughly five times the 2014 figure and about 2.5 times by volume. Powdered green tea, matcha included, accounts for most of it, and the pace did not slow in 2025.

Why Matcha Became a Global Phenomenon

Health consciousness and the superfood trend

Catechins, L-theanine and antioxidants gave matcha a foothold with health-minded consumers in Europe and North America. It also gained ground as an alternative source of caffeine to coffee.

Social media and the look of it

That green photographs well. Every matcha drink posted by an overseas influencer widened recognition, and the appeal landed hardest with younger consumers.

Interest in Japanese culture

Anime, manga and Japanese food have pulled attention toward Japan generally, and more buyers now specifically want the real Japanese article.

The big chains moved in

Once Starbucks and other global cafe chains made matcha a fixture rather than a special, it stopped being exotic.

What It Has Done Inside Japan

Leaf prices climbing

Supply has not kept up, and the domestic market turned upward. First-flush tea, long depressed, averaged 2,173 yen per kilogram in Shizuoka, the largest producing region, as of July of the 2025 crop, roughly 40% above the previous year. Tencha, the raw material for matcha, has been trading at about 2.6 times the price of sencha, and growers across the country are converting acreage and expanding tencha production.

Domestic consumers absorb it

For people who drink tea daily, price increases on a familiar brand land on the household budget. Confectioners and cafes that use matcha face the same input costs, and more of them have raised prices.

The farmers' dilemma

Rising exports mean better margins, but they raise a balancing problem. Concentrating on export sales thins domestic supply, which pushes prices up further at home.

Quality and labeling

Beyond the worry that rapid expansion will cost quality, products labeled matcha abroad are sometimes a different powdered green tea altogether. Protecting the Japanese matcha name has become its own question.

Update, July 2026: Exports Doubled and the 2026 Crop Opened High

Ministry of Finance figures put green tea exports at 72.1 billion yen in 2025, double the 36.4 billion of the year before in the space of twelve months. Powdered teas including matcha accounted for 60.4 billion of that. The United States ranked first by country, with Europe and Southeast Asia growing sharply as well.

Supply tightened further. JA data show Uji hand-picked matcha production down roughly 40% in 2025, from 10,216 kilograms to 6,140, with machine-picked first flush off about 18%. The market produced an inversion that veterans call unprecedented: autumn bancha, normally the cheap end, traded above first flush. Teikoku Databank recorded the highest number of tea-processing business closures on record in 2025.

The 2026 crop opened high too. At the first auctions in April in Kagoshima, the largest producing prefecture, average prices ran about 60% above the previous year. On the retail side, some tea merchants have set 2026 new-crop prices at around 1.3 times their current levels. Imported matcha has also begun appearing on the Japanese market.

Outlook and Responses

Government and industry bodies are trying to raise volume without losing quality: new planting, more efficient production methods, and standards intended to protect what counts as genuine matcha.

Others read the moment as an opening to carry Japanese tea culture further out into the world and push premium exports harder. Where to strike the balance between domestic drinkers and export growth is the open question.

Has a local ingredient or specialty from your country gotten expensive at home after catching on abroad? And what do you make of the matcha boom? We would like to hear it.

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