Matcha's popularity a boon for Japanese farmers but counterfeits a problem

On the surface, the can of matcha appears genuine, bearing the famous brand name Isuzu along with other product specifications.

The Japanese green tea powder is so popular that the highly acclaimed producer Marukyu Koyamaen has limited sales for each customer to prevent hoarding.

But Matsatsugu Nonomura, who handles the company's international sales, knows the can he's holding of Isuzu matcha is a copycat.

Not only is the can black, instead of white, but the tea's aroma, colour, and taste is off.

"Our matcha, Isuzu, has a very beautiful colour and a truly excellent aroma," he explains.

"The counterfeit Chinese matcha has poor colour and aroma."

Matcha's popularity has surged over the past couple of years, and Japanese farmers have struggled to meet growing demand.

Quickly bolstering supply is not an option.

Green tea plants take about five years to grow and the process to make the powder is painstaking, requiring farmers to shade the plants about three weeks before harvest, to boost chlorophyll and amino acids.

After harvesting, the leaves are steamed for 10 seconds, air-dried, then ground using traditional stone mills, which produce just 40 grams an hour.

Matcha labelling is almost completely unregulated, and some Japanese producers are worried that unscrupulous producers in China are exploiting the growing demand by offloading inferior tea products mislabelled as Japanese matcha.

While anyone can make matcha, these producers claim some of the labelling or packaging they are seeing overseas copy famous Japanese brand names or falsely claim to be from Japanese tea-growing regions.

"Manufacturers work tirelessly to supply consumers with premium products," Mr Nonomura said.

"Yet these efforts are now being undermined by counterfeit issues."

Matcha popularity 'gratifying to see'

Matcha is a highly specialised green tea, with its origins in Japan dating back at least 400 years.

It recently exploded in popularity on social media, as consumers praised its health benefits, rich umami flavour, and gentler caffeine hit when compared to coffee.

It's now common in lattes, cakes, and ice creams across cafes worldwide, but it's not the first time demand has boomed.

The first matcha shortage took place in the 1990s, when ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs launched its green tea flavour in Japan.

The industry was hit again when Starbucks started serving matcha lattes in the 2000s.

The renewed popularity has been a boon for farmers like Jintaro Yamamoto.

"It's incredibly gratifying to see that Japanese culture, or these enduring historical traditions, are being recognised by people around the world," he said.

Matcha production increased almost threefold from 2010 to 2023.

Last year, when the social media boom began, Japan's green tea exports broke records after rising 25 per cent in a single year.

This year, those records have been broken again, with matcha sales from January to September exceeding all of 2024.

But the intense interest has contributed to shortages.

"It's deeply regrettable that we cannot meet the demands of people around the world," Mr Yamamoto said.

Many farmers are also unsure if matcha's popularity will be permanent or short-lived.

One worry is that producing more matcha will hurt supplies of other green tea, which Japanese consumers still love.

Prospect of counterfeits spreading 

In Uji, one of Japan's most prestigious tea-growing regions, long queues of tourists form outside matcha outlets, with shelves cleared within hours of opening.

Buying from the source continues to be reliable, but Mr Nonomura has been tracking the rise of misleading distributors online.

Some Chinese packets of matcha available for purchase copy famous Japanese product names and packaging, while others falsely claim to be from Japanese tea-growing regions like Uji.

"If consumers buy something believing it to be Uji matcha and find it not nearly as delicious as expected, there is a risk they will stop buying it," he said.

"The prospect of such counterfeits spreading not just in China but worldwide would be extremely damaging to the market."

Japan's agriculture department said the rise of counterfeit products had increased with the rise of matcha's popularity, but it was impossible to provide a specific number.

Tackling the problem is also difficult.

The word "matcha" cannot be trademarked, but phrases like "Uji matcha" can be.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture pushed to have such trademarks registered overseas and believed it had some success lobbying China to crackdown on misleading products.

"We understand there have been instances, for example, where a Chinese company unrelated to Uji applied to register the trademark 'Uji Matcha' in China," said Tomoyuki Kawai, from the ministry's tea division.

"But the Chinese authorities rejected it."

But he accepted, even if one misleading product is caught, more will appear later.

"It is true that we can only deal with each case as it arises," he said.

The relationship between China and Japan is in a downward spiral, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi implied Japan would get involved in a conflict over Taiwan.

China has its own rich history of producing green tea, but matcha originates from Japan.

Mr Nonomura said if Chinese producers wanted to make matcha, they must be honest about its branding.

"China should compete with its own brand names if it claims to have quality products," he said.

The ABC reached out to the China National Intellectual Property Administration and did not get a response.