Standing orders: how to fix your matcha price for the harvest year

What a standing order is

A standing order is a simple agreement: you commit to a monthly volume of one or two lots for the harvest year, and the supplier reserves that volume and fixes the price per kilogram for the same period. You still pay per shipment, on the same terms as any order. What changes is that the lot is in a warehouse with your name on it, and the price on your menu stops moving with the tea auction in Kyoto.

It is the most ordinary arrangement in the Japanese tea trade. Mills sell most of their first-harvest tencha this way to the brands that have bought it for years, which is one reason prices at the mill moved less than the auction did in 2025. What is new is that cafés abroad can get the same arrangement directly, from 10 kg a month.

Why it takes the auction out of your menu

First-harvest tencha is picked once a year, in April and May, and most of it is priced at auction within weeks. A supplier who buys lot by lot through the year is exposed to that price every time they reorder, and so are you. A supplier who buys the year's volume at the mill after the harvest and reserves it can quote you one price in June and hold it to the following May. Our note on the 2026 shortage has the auction figures; the short version is that between 2024 and 2025 the average first-harvest tencha price in Kyoto roughly tripled, and cafés buying spot saw their price per kilo move two or three times in a year.

A fixed price is also what lets you print a menu. A matcha latte at $7 with matcha that costs $0.58 a cup is a known margin; the same latte with matcha that might cost $0.58 or $0.90 by autumn is a guess.

How ours work, step by step

1. Cup first. Three samples at 20 g, tasted the way you serve. A standing order is a year with one tea; do not sign it off a photo.
2. Set the volume. Tell us the monthly kilos per lot. 10 kg a month is the practical floor; chains and distributors run 50 to 500.
3. Confirm in writing. One page: the lot, the monthly volume, the price per kg at that tier, the incoterm (FOB Osaka or DDP), the shipment rhythm (monthly or every two months), and the harvest year the price holds for.
4. We reserve the lot. Your year's volume is set aside at the mill or in our Osaka stock. It is not sold to anyone else.
5. Ship and pay per shipment. Invoice with 14-day terms on each shipment; net 30 for repeat partners after the third order. Spec sheet and certificate of analysis with every lot.
6. Adjust within reason. Volume can move about 20 percent either way month to month without changing the price. Larger changes we talk about, because the reservation was sized to your number.

What happens when the lot runs out

Tea is agriculture. A reserved lot is finite, and a café that grows faster than planned can empty it before the next harvest. When that happens we tell you early, usually two shipments ahead, and cup the replacement against the original with you before anything ships: same grade, same region where possible, the two side by side in your recipe. The price stays fixed for the year even if the replacement cost us more; that risk is ours, which is the point of the agreement.

The other direction also happens. A lot ages, and a second-harvest café grade milled in July is a different product in the following April than it was in September. We rotate stock so that what ships in month ten was milled recently, and the milling date is on every spec sheet so you can check.

When in the year to lock the price

• June to August. The best time. First-harvest lots are milled, priced and in stock; second-harvest lots arrive from July. You see the year's price and lock it with the most volume available.
• September to December. Still fine for second-harvest and autumn lots, and for most café grades. First-harvest ceremonial lots are thinner and the smallest ones are gone.
• January to April. Lock what is left, or wait for the new harvest. A supplier who promises you a fixed price for a first-harvest lot in March, for twelve months, is pricing leaf that has not been picked.

The numbers at 10, 30 and 100 kg a month

Three examples with Sae, first-harvest Yame Saemidori, at the catalog price of $290 per kg for 1 to 19 kg and $265 per kg from 20 kg. The 100 kg tier is quoted per order because freight by sea changes the landed cost.

Catalog prices, FOB Osaka, October 2026. The standing-order price is the tier your monthly volume reaches, fixed for the harvest year once confirmed.

The tier is decided by your monthly volume, not by the size of each shipment, so a café taking 10 kg every two weeks sits in the 20 to 99 kg tier. For a second-harvest café grade the same logic applies at a lower price; Megumi, second-harvest Yame, is $185 per kg and $170 from 20 kg.

What to ask before you sign

• Is the price fixed for the harvest year, in writing, and from what date to what date?
• Is the lot reserved, or is this a price promise on tea the supplier does not hold yet?
• What happens if the lot runs out: who cups the replacement, and does the price hold?
• What is the milling date of what will ship in month six and month twelve?
• Can the volume move 20 percent month to month without renegotiating?

If the answers are yes, reserved, we cup it with you and it holds, dated, and yes, you have a real standing order. Ours start with three samples and a one-page proposal; the wholesale page has the terms, and the price guide shows what a fair per-kg range looks like before you commit to one.

Questions buyers ask