Planted Area and Production Volume of Tea in Japan

The Japanese tea production landscape has been going through a huge change these past few decades. Let's look at the recent trend of tea's planted area in Japan, as well as production volume.

The chart below shows the trend based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan.

As you can see from the chart above, the planted area of tea has been steadily declining throughout the years. The 49 K hectares of farmland in 2004 has decreased to 41 K hectares of farmland in 2019. In terms of growth rate, that's an alarming CAGR of roughly -2%. Unfortunately, there is no material indicating this trend will stop in the near future.

As you can expect, the production volumes of tea has gradually decreased as well. The 101 K tons of tea production in 2004 has dropped to 82 K tons of tea production in 2019. Similar to the growth rate of the planted area, the CAGR for production of tea is also roughly -2%.

Why is this alarming trend happening?

Part of this can be attributed to the reduction of tea farms in Japan. There has been an alarming reduction of tea farms all across Japan. The following data is based on Japan's total.

There were 53,687 commercial tea farms in Japan back in 2000. In only 15 years, this number has decreased to 20,144.

This means that less than 40% of the tea farms have survived the 15 years.

This can be attributed to several reasons. A gradual decrease in the domestic demand for green tea is one. However, there are challenges in the farmer's side as well.

The ratio of farmers above 65 years old in 2000 was 49%. This has grown even higher to 56% in 2015. Japan's tea production system is facing a critical aging problem.

The tea farms on the mountainside with steep inclined fields are difficult to support with machinery and automation. They become heavy labor for these old farmers, making it very difficult to sustain.

Below is the breakdown based on some of the main prefectures.

Source: https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/tokusan/cha/ocha.html

The acute reduction of commercial tea farms has been a strong trend for regardless of the prefectures. All the prefectures have seen tea farms reduce by more than 50% across the 15 years.

It's been increasingly difficult for the smaller tea farms to survive. The following chart is quite telling in that sense.

The average planted area of commercial tea farms have increase quite drastically over the years.

Kagoshima is the most evident as the average planted area increasing from 1.5 ha in 2000 to 3.3 ha in 2015. In terms of percentage, Mie may be the most impressive. The average of 0.5 ha in 2000 has tripled to 1.5 ha in 2015.

The Actual numbers are below.

Source: https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/tokusan/cha/ocha.html

This is just some additional data for reference.

As you can see, the tea production of Japan is really lead by the two prefectures, Shizuoka and Kagoshima. It's understandable why Shizuoka-cha is regarded as one of the "Three Great Teas of Japan", and why many people consider to add "Kagoshima-cha" into the mix as the new "Three Great Teas of Japan".

Shizuoka's production has a strong focus on Fukamushi-Sencha. The cultivar is extremely Yabukita dominant as well, accounting for 91% in 2019.

Kagoshima's production is mainly Sencha. They have perhaps the most balanced portfolio in terms of cultivars, with Yabukita only accounting for 32% in 2019. (This is relatively low, as Yabukita accounts for 71.5% of Japan's Tea)

Mie prefecture, known for Isecha, is the largest producer of Kabusecha.

Kyoto is famous for their Ujicha and the high production of Gyokuro and Matcha.

Fukuoka is famous for their Yamecha, and high production of Gyokuro and Kabusecha.