Matcha and Climate Change
In 2024, there was reportedly a matcha shortage in Japan, driven by a strong increase in demand but also a shortage of tencha, the tea leaves that are ground up to produce it.
Tencha is a seasonal product and requires a specific timeframe for its growth and the harvest - this is also why many matcha products list whether it's the first harvest or not, and might be unavailable for months. But as you might have guessed, for a product that needs specific temperatures and other conditions to be met, climate change also played a role.
Climate change causes unpredictable weather patterns globally, which also affects the quality and quantity of the tea leaf harvest for matcha in Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. Natural disasters like landslides and floods and extreme temperatures like frost, dry seasons followed by too much rain affect the small family-owned farms matcha often comes from. The plants are very sensitive to temperature changes, and warmer weather can increase the issue of pests and diseases. Initially, places like Japan had ideal conditions for growing green tea: The proximity of water, enough rain and sun throughout the year, humid summers and mild winters, lowlands and hills that provide protection from unfavorable weather conditions1.
But in the future, some parts of the surface are predicted to be submerged due to rising sea levels. This also affects the moisture and dryness in the air, the soil quality, areas where tea is grown globally, and migration patterns. Plants that grow best in specific altitudes and elevation above sea level are most affected; Japan is predicted to be hit particularly hard with rising sea levels, and matcha is commonly grown in high altitudes on specific type of soil to yield a desired quality. For example, matcha from the Kyoto region is favored, where the fields tend to have red-yellow soil derived from mica-bearing rocks1. Changes in conditions might require moving the production to other areas or countries altogether to keep facilitating it or make way for new settlements for climate refugees, meaning decades old family businesses might be destroyed and losing expertise means the art of cultivating and creating matcha is lost or set back.
So, matcha is sadly threatened by climate change.
If you want to know more about how tea globally (not just matcha, but tea like Rooibos, Darjeeling etc.) is affected by climate change, look at this comprehensive writeup sorted by tea and location.