For centuries Matcha tea It has been one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese culture. Now is that and something else: a drink popularized by social networks and coveted in the international market to such an extent that, in Japan itself, there are stores that have been forced to limit sales by customer. The world is thirsty for Matcha. Increasingly. And that has triggered a deep imbalance in the market that will not be easy to correct in the short term.
The big question is … why?
Limited purchases. The market of Matchaa popular Japanese powder tea that is made with Técha leaves And it stands out for its bright green color, faces a complicated scenario: a considerable (and growing) decoupling between the supply and demand that has even led some suppliers to limit the amount of product they sell to their customers. Recently Nikkei Asia He spoke of online stores without stock or UJI and Kyoto stores in which only a single Matcha product per day is allowed to acquire. Nothing else.
“Due to the strong and continuous increase in the demand for products in recent months, the current demand has already exceeded our production capacity,” Recognize The store Marukyu Koyamaen In a message posted on its website. “This translates into an extremely low inventory of all Matcha products at this time.”
If the scenario were not complex in itself, it is added that there are producers who want to prevent their historical clients, such as temples, sanctuaries and places where the drink is used for ceremonial purposes, they are left short.
A figure: 4,176 tons. The figures always help to better understand trends. And that of the Matcha boom is no exception. Although throughout the last decades the consumption of green tea and Matcha has been losing bellows in Japan, its success among foreign consumers has triggered the production of the ground TE. If in 2010 the country produced 1,471 tonsin 2023, according to the data of the Ministry of Japanese Agriculture (Maff), that volume had shot up to the 4,176 tons. Almost triple.
The Japan Times Precise In addition, in the last five years, the sector has experienced a key change, orient more and more towards the international market: today more than half of the Japanese matcha ends up exporting. In general Nikkei Calculate That last year the flow of green tea exports reached 8,798 tons, ten times more than a couple of decades ago. Of that volume, powder tea, especially Matcha, represented more than half.
The reflection in prices. The increase in demand has not long to move to prices, which draw an upward curve. After years down, the value of the tancha began to rebound after the pandemic and It has been consolidating little by little. In early May the Japanese newspaper The Asashi Shimbun revealed That, in the first auction of the year of green tea held at the Ja Zen-Noh Kyoto distribution center, the kilo reached an average of 8,235 yen, almost 67 dollars and 1.7 times more than a year ago. The value far exceeds the previous record, of 2016.
Looking out of Japan. Interestingly, matcha fever comes after decades in which both the consumption of powdered tea and green tea in general has been losing strength In Japan’s households, which also explains that has decreased production. The causes of their renewed boom must be sought beyond, in an international demand that According to some analysts It moves to historical maximums. Only American buyers absorbed in 2024 44% of shipments International TEA powder. Second, quite a distance, Germany and Malaysia are.
There are estimates that calculate that Matcha’s world market will be around 5,000 million of dollars in 2028, a more than considerable amount if one takes into account that in 2023 it stood at 2.8 billion. “In spite He recounts in Bloomberg K. Oanh ha.
What is that boom? There is not a single factor that explains the growing world thirst for Matcha. When analyzing the phenomenon, analysts usually point out a key: the visibility it has reached in networks, both for its photogenic bright green hue and by the videos and comments that extol their health benefits, a message that seems to have penetrated above all After the pandemic. To that growing interest are added the changes in the consumption of the Matcha, which has ceased to be an exclusive drink of homemade ceremonies and meetings to join bottled drinks or even accompany chocolates and ice cream.
And why not grow anymore? The tancha production has grown over the last years, expanding beyond the traditional areas of Japan. In addition, their farmers have seen how new competitors from China and South Korea arrived. So … why not that mismatch between supply and demand is not remedied? The key is in the limitations that the sector itself is found to expand its crops.
The country has land, but plantations are not created overnight. It takes years In being lists and tancha leaves need to pass a storage and processing phase. Especially if farmers want to wear stone mills. The sector is not alien to the shortage of collectors and the lack of generational relief in a country that dealt with a serious birth crisis. Either to A record tourism flow that further tense demand.
With that backdrop, farmers also face a fear that complicates the investments in the plantations: that the Matcha boom stays alone in that, a punctual fashion.
Images | Matcha & Co (UNSPLASH) and T.TSeg (Flickr)
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