Japan’s green tea exports reach highest level in over 70 years

Due to the growing international market for matcha powder and the weakening Japanese yen, Japan’s green tea exports in the first ten months of this year hit their greatest level in more than 70 years, according to government and industry figures released on Saturday. 10,084 tons of tea were exported between January and October, a 44% increase over the same period last year.

With 3,497 tons imported over the course of ten months, the United States was the main destination, followed by Taiwan, Thailand, and Germany.

For the past nine years, green tea exports have been rising, which is indicative of the rising demand for Japanese cuisine among consumers who are health-conscious abroad.

Despite rising overseas sales, annual shipments remained below 10,000 tons after peaking at 11,553 tons in 1954, partly as Chinese tea grew in popularity.

Despite sluggish green tea demand within Japan, tea leaf prices have been rising in recent years in line with falling production.

In 2024, Japan produced about 74,000 tons of tea leaves, more than 10 percent less than a decade earlier, amid declining demand for sencha used in brewing and an aging farming population.

According to an agricultural cooperative in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima, the country’s major tea leaf producer, leaves produced between October and November, typically used for bottled tea drinks, fetched over 2,500 yen ($16) per kilogram, surging six-fold from a year earlier.