Matcha harvest risk
Japan is warning that matcha production could be squeezed this spring because tea processors may lack fuel for the crucial April–June harvest, a concern serious enough that Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited a Tokyo matcha café to survey the situation. (japantimes.co.jp) The government is also planning to release an extra 20 days’ worth of oil reserves from May to steady supply—important because leaf-drying and early processing use fuel, so premium ceremonial matcha output could slow if energy disruption continues. (reuters.com)
Japan’s farm minister went to a matcha café in Tokyo this week because a tea problem had turned into an energy problem: processors are worried they may not have enough fuel to handle the spring harvest. The visit came as Japan’s government warned that supply disruptions tied to the Middle East could hit matcha production just as the key season begins. (japannews.yomiuri.co.jp) The timing is brutal because matcha is not harvested evenly across the year. The leaves used for matcha, called tencha, are shaded in April and then picked and processed during the first flush of spring, when the highest-grade tea is made. (matcha.co.jp) (yamamasa-koyamaen.co.jp) Those fresh leaves cannot just sit in a pile and wait for calmer oil markets. After picking, they have to be steamed, dried, and turned into aracha, an early processed tea, before they can later be refined and ground into matcha. (matcha.co.jp) That is why fuel matters so much here. If processors cannot run dryers and other equipment during April, May, and June, the bottleneck shows up first in premium ceremonial matcha, because that grade depends on fast handling of the youngest spring leaves. (matcha.co.jp) (japannews.yomiuri.co.jp) Japan is trying to get ahead of that risk by releasing more oil from its reserves. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on April 10 that the country plans to release an extra 20 days’ worth from May, on top of a reserve release program that began on March 16 and was designed to make available enough oil to last 50 days. (channelnewsasia.com) The oil question is especially sensitive in Japan because about 95 per cent of its oil comes from the Middle East. When shipping or supply from that region looks shaky, the pressure lands quickly on factories, transport, and food processing lines that depend on steady fuel. (channelnewsasia.com) This is landing on top of a market that was already tight before the fuel scare. Reuters reported in mid-2025 that heatwaves in Kyoto had cut yields, tencha prices at auction had surged, and Japan’s green tea exports in 2024 had risen 25 per cent in value to 36.4 billion yen as global demand for powdered tea kept climbing. (asahi.com) Tea farmers cannot fix that kind of squeeze overnight. New tea fields take years to become productive, so even if prices jump now, Japan cannot simply plant more bushes in April and have more ceremonial matcha by June. (asahi.com) So the immediate fight is not over demand at cafés in New York or Los Angeles. It is over whether Japan can keep enough fuel flowing through the first processing step of the spring harvest, because that is the narrow point where a global oil shock can turn into fewer tins of bright green powder on the shelf a few weeks later. (channelnewsasia.com) (matcha.co.jp)
