Why Good Matcha Is Becoming Hard to Find

European matcha drinkers, retailers and tea houses like RealiTea may have noticed something unusual lately. Their favorite green tea powder is often out of stock and prices are climbing.

This isn't just a local hiccup, it's a global issue rooted in a worldwide boom in matcha demand colliding with serious challenges for Japanese producers. Below, we explore how surging popularity, climate anomalies, and production constraints have created a perfect storm making matcha scarce and pricey, and we shed light on the struggles of the farmers behind this cherished product.

The Global Matcha Boom

Matcha, the vivid green, stone ground Japanese green tea, has transformed from a traditional ceremonial drink into an international sensation. Over the past decade, demand for matcha has skyrocketed worldwide, especially in Europe and other Western markets. In cafes from London to Vienna, matcha lattes and smoothies have become trendy menu staples. According to market projections, the global matcha market is expected to roughly double in size from about $2.8 billion in 2023 to $5 billion by 2028. Europe is very much part of this green boom. In fact, one analysis found the European matcha market grew about 25% between 2018 and 2023, with countries like Germany, France and the UK leading in consumption.

Several factors drive this craze. Health conscious consumers are drawn to matcha’s reputed benefits: It’s rich in antioxidants and provides a calm caffeine boost, making it a popular alternative to coffee. Millennials and Gen Z in particular have embraced matcha as a functional beverage for wellness. The tea’s versatility has helped too: beyond traditional tea, matcha’s distinct flavor and color are used in everything from lattes and smoothies to desserts and even cosmetics. During the pandemic, interest in healthy at-home drinks surged, further boosting matcha’s popularity.

Another modern catalyst is social media. Eyecatching bowls of frothy green matcha and creative matcha recipes have gone viral on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This digital exposure has “turbocharged” global demand almost overnight. For example, a tea shop owner in Sydney noted matcha sales jumped an “insane” 250% in just six months after matcha videos went viral. In short, the world can’t get enough of matcha, and consumers far beyond Japan – including here in Europe – are clamoring for more of this magical green tea powder.

Traditional Production and Supply Constraints

While global appetite for matcha has boomed, matcha supply cannot be ramped up easily. Producing authentic Japanese matcha is a labor intensive, traditional process with natural limitations. First, matcha comes from tea leaves that are harvested just once a year, in spring. Only the young, first flush leaves are used for high quality matcha, and they must be grown under shade for weeks before harvest to develop the flavor and nutrients. This means there’s a finite amount of raw material (called tencha before grinding) available each year, no matter how high demand gets. In fact, only about 6% of all tea harvested in Japan becomes matcha, since most tea is processed into other types like sencha. This inherently makes true matcha scarce – it’s a specialty product by nature.

Furthermore, turning tencha into the fine powder of matcha is a slow, meticulous task. Traditionally, granite stone mills grind the leaves at a very low speed to avoid heat, often taking over an hour to produce just 30–70 grams of matcha. Modern mills speed this up a bit, but grinding capacity is limited – when demand suddenly spiked recently, grinding facilities simply could not keep up. Unlike many products, you cannot drastically accelerate the production without compromising quality.

Crucially, scaling up matcha production isn’t as simple as planting more tea bushes. Tea plants take time to mature, typically about five years before a newly planted tea bush can yield high grade leaves suitable for matcha. Even though more Japanese tea farms have begun growing tencha to meet demand, those new fields won’t fully contribute to supply for years. Similarly, specialized processing equipment is a bottleneck. For instance, tencha-roasting machines and stone mills are not ubiquitous; historically, only a small portion of tea factories handled tencha because matcha was a niche product. As one tea producer noted, about 95% of Japanese tea producers mainly made sencha, and expanding matcha processing capacity (like building new factories) can take a year or more of lead time. All of these factors mean supply can only increase slowly and deliberately – it cannot surge in tandem with a sudden demand boom.

Lastly, Japan’s tea farming workforce is shrinking, which further constrains supply. Tea cultivation in Japan is largely done by small, family run farms with deep expertise. But many farmers are now elderly – in their 60s, 70s, or older – and younger generations are few and far between in agriculture. The number of tea farmers in Japan plummeted from about 53,000 in the year 2000 to just 12,353 in 2020. This demographic challenge means there are fewer hands to tend the fields and expand production. Even with government programs encouraging new farmers or consolidation of tea fields, this is a long term issue that can’t be fixed overnight. European consumers might find it interesting (and humbling) that behind every teaspoon of matcha are the efforts of an aging, dwindling community of skilled farmers. Their capacity to increase output is limited by both tradition and manpower.

Climate Change and Weather Extremes Threaten Harvests

On top of structural limits, climate anomalies have dealt a heavy blow to matcha supply in recent years. Tea plants are highly sensitive to weather, and the growing conditions for premium matcha are quite specific. Unfortunately, climate change is introducing more erratic and extreme weather patterns in Japan’s tea growing regions, which is making harvests less predictable and sometimes less fruitful.

A stark example occurred in 2024: Japan experienced its hottest year on record, with intense heatwaves hitting key tea regions like Kyoto. Summer heat stress weakened the tea bushes, leading to a poor spring 2025 harvest in those areas. In Uji, the historical heartland of matcha in Kyoto, farmers saw their yields drop dramatically. One sixth generation tea farmer in Uji reported he could only harvest 1.5 tons of tencha this year, down 25% from his usual 2 tons, because the extreme heat had damaged the tea bushes the previous summer. Such heat damage meant fewer leaves to pluck when harvest season arrived. Overall, the Kyoto Tea Association data showed significant declines for 2025: Handpicked Uji tencha output fell by about 40% compared to the prior year.

Heat is not the only threat. Tea cultivation can be disrupted by irregular rainfall, droughts, and untimely frosts as well. In a delicate stage like the shading period (when tea plants are covered to boost chlorophyll before harvest), a single unexpected frost can ruin an entire crop of high grade tencha leaves. Excessive rain or typhoons, on the other hand, can damage leaves or impede harvest work. Conversely, overly warm winters can cause tea plants to bud too early, only to be harmed by a cold snap later. Farmers have long relied on relatively stable seasons to schedule tea growth and harvest, but that stability is shifting. “Shifting temperature patterns, made worse by climate change, can damage delicate tea leaves or disrupt the timing of harvests,” explains one Japanese tea producer. In summary, climate variability is making a tough job even harder for matcha growers. These anomalies contribute to lower yields and inconsistent quality year to year, undermining supply just when global demand is growing.

Demand Outpacing Supply Causes Shortages and Soaring Prices

Combine the booming global demand with the slow, limited supply and recent harvests hit by climate anomalies, and the outcome is predictable: A serious supply-demand mismatch. By late 2024 and into 2025, matcha supplies tightened so much that shortages became apparent in Japan and abroad. Japanese tea manufacturers, faced with dwindling reserves of matcha, took the unprecedented step of imposing purchasing limits on domestic buyers in order to ration supply. Café owners in Japanese cities reported “sold out” signs appearing as they ran out of matcha powder to serve to customers. If Japan, the source of matcha, was seeing empty shelves, it’s no surprise that overseas markets felt the pinch too.

Indeed, soaring demand in Europe, North America, and beyond has led to warnings of further shortages. While tea consumption in Japan (including matcha) has actually been declining in recent years, the rest of the world’s appetite has more than made up for it. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture data shows that tea producers dramatically ramped up matcha output, nearly tripling production between 2010 and 2023, and yet it still hasn’t been enough. Over half of Japan’s tea production is now exported (much of it in the form of matcha) rather than consumed domestically, a clear reflection that international demand is pulling tea out of Japan at an unprecedented rate. Japanese exports of green tea, including matcha, jumped 25% in value in 2024 alone, as global buyers snapped up what was available.

For consumers in Europe, these dynamics have been noticed as higher prices and scarce stock. Importers and specialty shops that source from Japan have faced delays and quotas on how much matcha they can get. A UK retailer noted that health stores and e-commerce sites are struggling to keep premium matcha in stock as the UK’s matcha consumption hits an all-time high. This scramble for supply has inevitably driven up prices. In Japan, the price of bulk tencha leaf at auction has hit record highs, more than doubling from a year earlier (in one Kyoto tea auction, prices leapt 170% year-on-year). Internationally, buyers are paying more as well, and many cafes have had to raise the price of a matcha latte or risk running out of powder to serve.

A tea shop in Uji (Kyoto Prefecture) displays an "Out of Stock" notice for matcha, June 2025. Booming demand and a poor harvest led to shortages even in Japan.

Some unintended side effects of the shortage are also emerging. Consumers are warned to be cautious about cut-rate matcha from dubious sources, as a wave of low quality or adulterated “bargain” products has entered some markets to fill the gap. In other words, when the authentic supply can’t meet the craze, there’s a risk of knockoffs. This makes it all the more important to understand why real matcha is limited and to appreciate the genuine article.

Efforts to Boost Supply and the Road Ahead

Japanese farmers, tea companies, and even the government are acutely aware of the mismatch between matcha’s global popularity and the current production capacity. Efforts are underway to boost supply, but they come with challenges and will take time to bear fruit. The Japanese government has reportedly planned incentives and subsidies to encourage tea growers to shift more of their production from regular leaf tea (sencha) to tencha, the type of leaf used for matcha. In recent years, many farmers who once grew mostly sencha have indeed started dedicating more fields to shaded tencha cultivation to ride the matcha wave. This transition is strategic and has already led to that significant increase in matcha output over the last decade.

However, as discussed, planting more tea bushes today means waiting several years for new plants to mature. It’s a long term investment. Similarly, new processing facilities (like additional stone mills or refining equipment) are being added to increase grinding capacity, but these expansions are measured in years, not months. Tea industry experts note that even if production technology modernizes, quality matcha will always be seasonal and labor intensive to some degree. You cannot shortcut the careful growing and grinding process without compromising what makes matcha special.

Another avenue being pursued is supporting the remaining tea farmers and attracting new ones. Recognizing the aging workforce issue, some tea companies (and prefectural governments) are helping older farmers pass on their knowledge to a new generation and making the profession more attractive to young people. There are programs for mechanization where possible (for example, using machines for some tea plucking in larger fields) to cope with labor shortages, although the highest grades of matcha still rely on hand picking. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture has even provided subsidies for tea farms to improve resilience, such as installing frost protection measures or new shading techniques to counter climate extremes. These adaptations aim to stabilize yields in the face of unpredictable weather.

But will these efforts be enough? In the short term, industry observers say the supply squeeze is likely to persist. “I suspect we’ll see even more dramatic price increases,” commented one U.S. based tea buyer after seeing this year’s disappointing harvest in Uji. It may be only after a few more growing seasons assuming favorable weather and the maturation of newly planted fields, that matcha supply can better catch up with demand. In the long run, if global demand keeps rising, Japan may also look to expand matcha cultivation to new regions or refine agricultural techniques to increase yields without sacrificing quality. Some tea science researchers are exploring climate resilient tea plant varietals and new shading methods to help tea bushes cope with heat or frost. In any case, both farmers and consumers will need a bit of patience and flexibility as the market finds a new balance.

A Mutual Appreciation between Producers and Consumers

It’s important to recognize that behind the current matcha scarcity is a story of both success and strain. Success, because the rest of the world has discovered the unique joy and benefits of matcha, something Japanese tea masters have cherished for centuries, and this global embrace can benefit Japanese producers in the long run. Strain, because that very surge in popularity is putting immense pressure on a traditional industry already coping with environmental and social challenges.

For European consumers and tea professionals, understanding these challenges fosters a greater appreciation for the value of real Japanese matcha. Each gram of matcha powder represents careful cultivation under bamboo shades, selective hand harvesting, and stone milling carried out with precision. These are artisanal practices that cannot be easily industrialized or relocated. When we see prices rising or stock running low, it’s not merely a market inconvenience, it’s a reflection of the reality that matcha is a precious, seasonal agricultural product and not a mass produced commodity. A bad weather spell in Kyoto or the retirement of a tea farmer in Shizuoka does indeed ripple into our cafe menus in Paris or Vienna.

On the other side, many Japanese farmers and tea producers take heart in knowing that overseas consumers truly value the authenticity and quality of their matcha. The fact that European buyers insist on Japanese matcha (despite cheaper alternatives from elsewhere) shows respect for the craftsmanship and heritage behind it. Professionals in Europe, from importers to cafe owners, are increasingly educating customers about why high grade matcha is worth the price and why supporting the sustainability of Japanese tea farming is important. There is a sense of shared purpose, ensuring that the matcha tradition endures and thrives in a balanced way.

In conclusion, the current difficulty in finding matcha is a result of booming global demand meeting the hard limits of traditional production, all increased by climate related setbacks. Japan’s tea industry is striving to adapt by expanding production and innovating where possible, but it also must preserve the quality and cultural legacy that make matcha special. As consumers, being aware of these challenges makes that bowl of emerald green tea even more meaningful. Whether you’re a European cafe owner rationing your matcha stock or a Japanese farmer toiling in the fields, the hope is that this mutual understanding will lead to supportive solutions from mindful consumption to sustainable production, ensuring that everyone can continue to enjoy matcha’s vibrant taste and benefits for years to come, without driving the farmers or the tea fields to exhaustion.

Ultimately, matcha’s journey from Japanese tea gardens to European cups is a remarkable story of global connection. By valuing the work of its producers and the limits of nature, we can savor matcha not just as a trend, but as a treasured product of human dedication and environmental harmony.

Sources:

New Stuff

Why You Should Not Drink Matcha on an Empty StomachWhy You Should Not Drink Matcha on an Empty Stomach
Feeling queasy after matcha? Discover why drinking matcha on an empty stomach can cause discomfort, and how traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi) offer the perfect, time-honored remedy.
Tea and Wellness: What Does Science Really Say About The Health Benefits of Tea?Tea and Wellness: What Does Science Really Say About The Health Benefits of Tea?
Discover the real science behind the health benefits of tea, from antioxidants and heart health to cognitive support and cancer risk, backed by research and expert insights.
MatchaMatcha
Matcha originates in the 8th century in China. When monks brought it to Japan, it became one of the most ritualized drinks in history. Learn what matcha is, how it is made, key grades, and where to buy quality matcha.
Why Good Matcha Is Becoming Hard to FindWhy Good Matcha Is Becoming Hard to Find
European matcha drinkers, retailers and tea houses like RealiTea may have noticed something unusual lately. Their favorite green tea powder is often out of stock and prices are climbing.
Matcha Origins, Health Benefits, and Modern UsesMatcha Origins, Health Benefits, and Modern Uses
Discover the origins of matcha, its key health benefits, and how this vibrant green tea is used today. Learn how matcha evolved from ancient traditions to modern culinary trends.
Matcha LoveMatcha Love
Matcha Love explores the latest trends in matcha consumption, from hot and iced matcha latte to strawberry matcha, mango matcha, vanilla matcha latte, and matcha with boba. Learn why Japan loves matcha and how the joy is spreading worldwide.
3 Common Grades of Matcha and How to Choose the Right One3 Common Grades of Matcha and How to Choose the Right One
Discover the 3 main grades of matcha. Ceremonial, premium, and culinary. Learn their differences in flavor, quality, and best uses so you can pick the perfect matcha for tea, lattes, or cooking.