“I’m glad the world is taking an interest in our matcha, but in the short term, it’s almost a threat — we just can’t keep up,” says the experienced tea farmer, showing the freshly dried tea leaves. In 2024, matcha accounted for more than half of the 8,798 tons of green tea exported by Japan, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, twice as much as ten years ago.