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Matcha Is Becoming Bigger Than Japan And Japan Knows It

Matcha_Much_Bigger_Japan..Media_Slide

For centuries matcha was inseparable from Japan. Now its extraordinary global popularity is beginning to create something Japan has encountered before with other prized agricultural products: a successful food becoming an international category that other countries want to produce.


Japan is responding by strengthening the fence around provenance. In July, the Japanese Government registered “Japanese Tea” as a geographical indication (GI), covering green tea grown and processed within Japan. The move is intended to protect Japanese agricultural intellectual property and distinguish authentic Japanese production as overseas demand — particularly for matcha — accelerates. Japan's green tea exports reached ¥36.4 billion in 2024, up around 25% in a year, and climbed dramatically again in fiscal 2025.


But thousands of kilometres away, Assam has just demonstrated why Japan is moving now. India's Chota Tingrai tea estate has begun commercial production of what it deliberately calls “Matcha assamica”, produced from the indigenous Camellia assamica Tinali 17 cultivar using Japanese-designed processing equipment and expertise. After experimental production dating back to 2017, around 250kg has been produced so far in 2026, with the company targeting growing markets in India, the US, Europe and West Asia.


This isn't necessarily imitation. It may be the beginning of matcha segmentation. Assam's producers acknowledge they cannot reproduce Japanese terroir and aren't trying to. Their product is described as smoother, less astringent and sweeter than strongly umami Japanese matcha, potentially making it more approachable for consumers encountering matcha through lattes, smoothies, desserts and functional beverages rather than the Japanese tea ceremony.


That distinction could become increasingly important. Global demand is outrunning Japan's ability to expand production quickly. Japan produced 5,336 tonnes of tencha in 2024, almost 2.7 times the volume of a decade earlier, yet heat damage, labour constraints and the long lead time required to establish new tea fields have tightened supply and pushed prices sharply higher.


The likely outcome isn't that Assam replaces Uji. It is that matcha starts behaving more like wine, coffee or chocolate. Origin, cultivar, processing method and quality become differentiators. Japanese matcha can potentially move further towards protected premium provenance, while Assam, China, Vietnam and other producing regions develop products around the much larger global appetite for powdered green tea.



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