TOKYO, Japan: Japan’s green tea exports in the first 10 months of this year reached the highest level in over 70 years on the back of the booming overseas market for ‘matcha’ powder and the depreciation of the Japanese yen.
This was shown by government and industry data on Saturday, as reported by Kyodo News.
Tea exports between January and October grew 44 per cent from the same period last year to 10,084 tonnes.
The United States was the top destination, importing 3,497 tonnes in the 10 months, followed by Taiwan, Thailand and Germany.
Green tea exports have been increasing for nine consecutive years, reflecting the growing overseas popularity of Japanese foods among health-conscious consumers.
Despite rising overseas sales, annual shipments remained below 10,000 tonnes after peaking at 11,553 tonnes 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 tonnes of tea leaves, more than 10 per cent 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 (USD16 or RM65.44) per kilogramme, surging six-fold from a year earlier. – BERNAMA
