Matcha has taken Australia’s café scene by storm over the past few years. Once a potential passing fad, variations of the popular Japanese green tea have become menu mainstays around the country.
However, similar climate and weather issues to those that have been plaguing coffee harvests around the world also look to be impacting Japan’s matcha harvests.
Over the past year, the production of tencha – the stemmed leaves that are dried and then ground to create matcha – in the Kyoto region has been impacted by a series of severe heatwaves. Roughly a quarter of Japan’s tencha production occurs in Kyoto.
Sixth-generation matcha farmer Masahiro Yoshida told Reuters how the heatwave had negatively impacted his crop from the recent April/May harvest.
“Last year’s summer was so hot that it damaged the bushes, so we couldn’t pluck as many tea leaves,” he says.
Masahiro says he was only able to harvest about 1.5 tonnes of matcha, rather than the typical two tonnes he would usually expect.
The increasing global popularity of matcha, coupled with lower than expected harvest yields, has seen the price of Japanese green tea soar in recent years.
Tencha prices have risen to record highs, and the crop was valued at AU$85.15 (8235 yen) per kilogram at a recent auction in Kyoto, which is a 170 per cent increase from May 2024.
Japan produced more than 5300 tonnes of tencha in 2024, which is a more than 250 per cent increase from 2014 following more farmers switching to the crop. However, matcha fields take five years to mature before they can be harvested. As demand continues to outpace supply, matcha prices are expected to continue to rise.
