Japan Matcha Price Surge 2025: What It Means for U.S. Importers | Matcha Wholesale Japan

Japan's green tea industry is at a turning point — and if you import Japanese matcha for your café or restaurant in the United States, these shifts in the domestic market will directly affect your supply and pricing. Based on a report published on April 26, 2026 by Shokuhin Shimbun (Japan Food Industry Newspaper), we share the latest ground-level news from Shizuoka Prefecture, one of Japan's most important tea-producing regions.

What Is Ichibancha (一番茶 / First-Flush Tea)?

Ichibancha (一番茶) refers to the first harvest of the year, typically picked in late April through May. It is the most prized flush of the season, representing the highest quality and the most delicate flavor. For tea farmers, ichibancha is the financial backbone of the year — typically accounting for 60–70% of annual revenue. Aracha (荒茶) is the term for unrefined, minimally processed tea leaves that are produced immediately after harvest, before final sorting or blending. Aracha is the form in which most tea leaves are traded at the wholesale level in Japan.

2024: A Historic Crisis — First-Flush Tea Left Unsold

In 2024, tea farmers in the JA Hainan distribution area of Makinohara City, Shizuoka Prefecture faced something unprecedented: ichibancha aracha found no buyers at a viable price. According to Tsuguhito Yokoyama, Vice Chairman of the Katsumata Kaitaku Tea Agricultural Cooperative (勝間田開拓茶農業協同組合) in Makinohara, Shizuoka, prices that should have been around ¥2,500/kg (approx. $17/kg) fell as low as ¥500/kg (approx. $3.40/kg) — well below the break-even point.

Rather than process and stockpile tea that could not be sold at a sustainable price, some farmers made the painful decision to simply abandon — or "cut and discard" — their ichibancha crop. "This was the first time we had to discard tea not because of a natural disaster, but because of low demand," Yokoyama said. "The psychological damage went far beyond the financial loss."

The root cause was a structural shift in the market. Wholesale buyers (tea merchants and trading companies) have increasingly shifted their purchasing focus away from ichibancha — which is primarily used for premium loose-leaf tea — toward nibancha (second-flush) and later harvests, which are more versatile and used widely as ingredient raw material for bottled beverages and other processed products. This shift reflects changing consumer lifestyles in Japan, where traditional kyusu (teapot) brewing has declined significantly.

The Speed of Ichibancha Trading

Ichibancha is extremely time-sensitive at the trading level. "In Shizuoka, market prices are heavily influenced by the timing of the sale. The later you sell, the lower the price," Yokoyama explained. "Something that sells for ¥2,500/kg (approx. $17/kg) today may drop by ¥50–¥100/kg the next day — and in recent years, drops of ¥200–¥300/kg are not uncommon."

Freshly harvested leaves cannot be held in inventory; they are processed into aracha the same day and shipped the following morning. Without a reliable buyer lined up, farmers face a cascading problem: inventory builds up, prices collapse, and the only option becomes a distress sale.

2025: Matcha Boom Drives a Dramatic Rebound — But Uncertainty Remains

The picture for 2025 was dramatically different for later harvests. Nibancha (second-flush) and autumn-winter tea prices surged due to a combination of factors: pent-up demand from ichibancha under-purchasing in 2024, and a powerful global matcha boom driving conversion of tea fields from sencha to tencha (碾茶) — the raw leaf specifically grown for matcha production.

In Shizuoka's Hainan district, nibancha prices that had typically started around ¥1,200/kg (approx. $8.20/kg) and fallen to ¥800/kg (approx. $5.50/kg) by season's end in previous years instead held steady at ¥1,200–¥1,300/kg (approx. $8.20–$8.90/kg) throughout 2025. Even more striking: autumn-winter tea (秋冬番茶), which had historically traded at around ¥300/kg (approx. $2.05/kg), reached an average of ¥1,850/kg (approx. $12.70/kg) — a level farmers had never seen before.

Yokoyama also visited Kagoshima Prefecture and confirmed that one farm covering 200 hectares had converted half its fields to tencha for matcha production. "When I visualized that scale — equivalent to about 100 hectares disappearing from sencha supply in our own district — I understood immediately why sencha supply was tightening," he said. Despite the improved revenues, however, he remains cautious: "The tea merchants themselves told us they don't know if prices will hold. When the sales professionals say that, it creates anxiety on the production side too."

Aracha Price Spikes: What This Means for U.S. Matcha Buyers

For U.S. café owners and food service buyers sourcing Japanese matcha, this market dynamic has direct implications. The global matcha boom is not just driving up retail prices — it is reshaping the entire Japanese tea farming ecosystem from the ground up. Fields previously devoted to sencha are being replanted with tencha. Farmers who are exiting the industry are taking productive land with them. And the structural supply of high-quality Japanese aracha — the raw ingredient for premium matcha — is under sustained pressure.

Tencha acreage is expanding, but at the cost of other green tea varieties. The Hainan district currently manages approximately 1,300 hectares of tea fields, and the shift toward tencha is measurable and accelerating. For buyers focused on single-origin Japanese matcha, understanding this supply chain reality helps explain both current price levels and longer-term availability risks.

Farmer Retention and the Succession Crisis

Behind the price headlines is a quieter but equally serious challenge: farm succession. Yokoyama, who returned to farming at age 21 after studying at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, now helps manage approximately 31 hectares across 18 farm households in his cooperative — down from higher numbers in previous years due to aging and retirement.

"Even when revenues are flat, costs keep rising," he noted. "A machine that once cost ¥1,000,000 (approx. $6,800) now costs ¥5,000,000 or more (approx. $34,000+). Some farmers retire as soon as their loans are paid off, because they don't see a path to recovering new investments." The dissolution of a well-known, branded specialty cooperative in the area sent a further signal: "When someone at that level quits, it triggers others to follow."

To address succession, Yokoyama's cooperative is undertaking variety conversion — replanting a 10-are (0.1-hectare) test plot in March 2026 with 200 seedlings of Shizuyutaka, a new variety that yields significantly more than the dominant Yabukita cultivar and is more resistant to the extreme weather conditions that have become increasingly common in recent years.

Contract Farming as a Stability Model

One structural solution gaining traction is contract farming with major buyers. Ito En's "Tea Producing Region Development Program" (茶産地育成事業), running since 1976, guarantees full purchase of all harvested tea leaves under pre-agreed conditions. In the Hainan area, contract cultivation acreage grew from 5 hectares in 2015 to nearly 300 hectares by 2026 — roughly a 60-fold increase over 11 years.

"With contract farming, we can focus entirely on meeting quality standards without worrying about finding a buyer," Yokoyama said. "Even in 2024, when market conditions were terrible, the contract farming portion kept our revenue from collapsing." Yoshimoto Egawa, Deputy Director of the Tea Industry Center at JA Hainan's distribution and sales division, emphasized the importance of transparent dialogue: "We explain the real cost structure of the farming operation and work together with buyers to define conditions that make sustainable production possible."

Looking Ahead: The Matcha Boom as a Gateway

Despite the challenges, Yokoyama sees the global matcha boom as a genuine bright spot for the broader Japanese tea industry. "The matcha boom is the first sign of light we've seen in an industry that has been in long-term decline," he said. "Right now it's matcha — but this opens the door for people to discover sencha, fukamushi-cha (deep-steamed green tea), and even Japanese oolong and black tea."

His underlying message speaks directly to the responsibility of everyone in the supply chain: "Restoring drinking occasions matters more than competing for volume. Tea can take many forms — bottled, powdered, traditional. There is still plenty of room to grow." For U.S. businesses that source Japanese matcha, choosing suppliers who work directly with Japanese farming cooperatives is not just a quality decision — it is a way to participate in sustaining the agricultural heritage that makes authentic Japanese matcha possible.

Source:
Shokuhin Shimbun / Yahoo! Japan News, April 26, 2026
"日本茶が転換点　茶価高騰の一方で一番茶に買い手がつかない事態に直面　「日本茶文化を守りたい」静岡の茶農家が語る現場の声"
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1ced997753bbfd14f8ddec3ee03105a67ad6e725