Shizuoka tea prices hit 1.8 times last year's level as global matcha demand surges

Trading prices at the Shizuoka Tea Market for 2026 have climbed to roughly 1.8 times their 2025 level, according to figures released on September 30, as the global matcha boom reaches one of Japan's main tea-producing prefectures. Local reporting ties the increase directly to overseas demand for powdered green tea, and to a set of new initiatives being organised to protect Shizuoka tea.

Export value nearly doubled in 2025

Statistics from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) put green tea exports at ¥72.1 billion in 2025, an increase of 98.2% on the previous year. Powdered green tea, the category that includes matcha, now supplies the bulk of that value in the two largest Western markets: 87% of export value to the United States and 88% to the European Union and the United Kingdom.

The shift is about product form as much as volume. The international image of “Japanese green tea” has moved from leaf sencha brewed in a kyusu toward matcha used as an ingredient — lattes, cakes, ice cream and fruit drinks in cafés in New York, London and Paris, where a matcha culture distinct from Japanese practice has taken shape. Domestic demand has moved the other way: consumption of leaf green tea in Japan has declined over the long term, while bottled green tea drinks have gained ground.

Tencha pays almost five times more than sencha

Matcha begins as tencha, grown under shade to limit sunlight before harvest, then steamed and dried without the rolling step used for sencha, and finally ground, traditionally on stone mills. The price gap between the two leaf types is the central economic fact for growers. MAFF figures for 2025 show average crude tea (aracha) prices of:

• ¥8,562/kg for tencha
• ¥1,746/kg for sencha
• a spread of about 4.9 times

Tencha still accounts for a small share of output — 8.6% of crude tea production in 2025, against 48.1% for sencha — which is why the incentive to convert fields is strong. Kagoshima, Kyoto and Shizuoka are the main tencha-producing areas.

Supply cannot respond within a season

Reuters reported on July 4, 2025 that surging global matcha demand had run into a supply shortage. Tencha production reached 5,336 tonnes in 2024, well above the level of a decade earlier, but extreme summer heat in Kyoto cut the harvest and pushed tencha prices higher on the Kyoto market. Reuters also noted that newly planted tea gardens need roughly five years before they yield sufficiently — a lag that keeps supply tight even where growers commit capital now. For buyers, price risk therefore sits in 2026 and 2027 contracts rather than being resolved by a single good season.

Brand protection moves to the foreground

With prices at these levels, provenance has become a commercial issue. MBS News reported in 2025 on products of Chinese origin sold with “Uji matcha” labelling, and on items carrying the same names — “Isuzu”, “Seiran” and “Wakatake” — as products of Marukyu Koyamaen, an established Uji tea producer in Kyoto. The company issued a public warning on July 19, 2025 that counterfeit goods imitating its brand had been found on overseas online sales sites and social media.

On July 10, 2026, MAFF registered “Japanese tea” as a geographical indication, under the registered names 日本茶 / Nihon Cha / Nippon Cha / Japanese Tea / Japan Tea, with Japan as the production area. The GI system protects as intellectual property the names of agricultural and food products whose quality or reputation is tied to a specific area. For exporters, the registration provides a legal basis against mislabelled competing product; for Shizuoka, it sits alongside the local initiatives now taking shape to defend the prefecture's tea as field economics tilt toward matcha.