Green Tea Exports Doubled in One Year | Matcha Lattes and Sweets Drove 72 Billion Yen

Let’s begin with the number.

Almost doubled in 1 year

According to an announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the export value of green tea in 2025 was 72 billion yen, up 98.2% year on year.

When you line up the trend, you can see how extraordinary the growth is.

2022	Approx. 21.9 billion yen
2023	29.2 billion yen
2025	72 billion yen

What created the growth was not tea for drinking

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries explains the reason for the growth as follows.

For Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia, powdered teas such as matcha, used as ingredients for lattes and sweets, increased and as a result, green tea doubled year on year

It was not tea brewed in a teapot for drinking, but “matcha as an ingredient” that grew.

Matcha lattes, matcha ice cream, matcha cookies, matcha tiramisu. The world’s cafes and confectionery shops have become the largest sales channel for Japanese tea.

Where is it going?

Here is the 2025 breakdown by country and region.

United States	29.3 billion yen
Germany	5.8 billion yen
United Kingdom	4.7 billion yen
Thailand	3 billion yen
Taiwan	2.6 billion yen

The United States alone accounts for more than 40% of the total. Being concentrated in one country also means that if trends in that country change, the impact will be large.

Looking at the overall numbers as well

The export value of agricultural, forestry, fishery, and food products in 2025 was 1.7005 trillion yen. Up 12.8% year on year, it set a new record high for the 13th consecutive year.

Within that, green tea accounts for 72 billion yen, or about 4% of the total. The amount is small, but the growth rate is about 8 times that of the overall total. The places where it is growing are limited.

In fact, it is the same story as cosmetics

Why would a company that sells cosmetics write about tea exports?

Something that had been sold as “something to drink” doubled its market the moment it became an “ingredient” — because this structure applies to manufacturing as a whole today.

The same was true of the traditional crafts we have looked at in VILLAGE Report. Kumano brushes went from calligraphy brushes to makeup brushes. Inshu washi went from calligraphy paper to oil-blotting paper.

When the use changes, the size of the market changes. Even though the thing itself has not changed at all.

References: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, “2025 Export Performance of Agricultural, Forestry, Fishery and Food Products,” “Japan Tea Export Promotion Portal,” and the special feature “Delivering Japanese Tea to the World”; JETRO, “2025 Export Performance of Agricultural, Forestry, Fishery and Food Products: Detailed Version by Country/Region and Item” and “Export Item Report: Green Tea”

—The Value Village Editorial Team