You might soon be seeing fewer photos of matcha lattes on your social media, as a current matcha shortage in Japan is having a global impact.
Japan is currently experiencing a matcha shortage thanks to skyrocketing global demand, tricky production processes, and environmental challenges. Matcha’s popularity – with some visitors to Japan bringing back entire suitcases of matcha products – has outpaced what producers can supply. Most matcha in Japan comes from small, traditional family-run farms, where growing and grinding the tencha tea leaves (used for matcha) takes a lot of time and effort. These local stone mills can’t keep up with the recent matcha-buying mayhem.
Leading Japanese matcha brands, including Marukyu Koyamaen, Ippodo Tea, and Ocha no Kanbayashi, have already placed limits on customer orders. Ippodo Tea announced on October 30th that it would temporarily suspend the sale of certain matcha products in its store due to the supply shortage. The store has temporarily suspended the sale of certain products until the beginning of 2025, and other matcha products are limited to one item per customer.
The shortage is now starting to affect matcha supply worldwide.
We spoke with Elaine Fitzsimons, the owner of Ireland’s only dedicated matcha cafe, The Matcha Bar, which opened in the Powerscourt Centre, Dublin, in July 2024 as a pop-up but extended its lease for a year due to popularity.
Elaine said that the shortage means her supplier “has already put a quota on how much I can order every few weeks.” Elaine imports the matcha directly from the source herself in Uji, Japan, where she went and visited in April to find a supplier. All of the matcha at The Matcha Bar is organic (which can often be hard to come by in Japan) & ceremonial grade matcha (highest quality, made from the youngest tea leaves. It has a vibrant green colour, a smooth, creamy texture, and a naturally sweet, umami flavour).
Commenting on the impact of supplier order quotas, Elaine said that “thankfully” she has not had to implement a price change or menu changes due to the shortage “as of yet”, but that she is “potentially looking at adding in another supplier or two to diversify and protect against any one supplier running out.”
Interestingly, Elaine also says that despite matcha’s popularity in Ireland – and Dublin in particular – she “doesn’t think the news of Japan’s matcha shortage is very widely known here so I have not noticed any changes in consumer behaviour because of this.”
Japan’s matcha shortage is expected to last until at least mid-2025.
