We were at Booth #5521 at the Summer Fancy Food Show, June 28–30 at the Javits Center. Three days on the floor, hundreds of conversations with café owners, procurement leads, brand founders, and co-packers. Here’s what we actually heard.
1. “Where is this actually from?”
The most common question wasn’t price or grade — it was origin. Buyers wanted to know not just “Japan” but which prefecture, which farm, and whether we could document it. In 2026, buyers have been burned by suppliers who quietly switched to Chinese-origin matcha without disclosure. They want COAs, lot traceability, the actual farm relationship. Several buyers showed us their current supplier’s documentation and asked us to explain what they were looking at. The buying conversation has genuinely shifted.
2. Supply anxiety is real — and it’s changing who buyers work with
We heard the same story a dozen times: “Our supplier tripled their lead time” or “Our allocation was cut 40% with two weeks notice.” The 2026 matcha shortage is landing on purchase orders. What’s changing is that buyers who used to work through importers and trading companies are now trying to go direct to manufacturers. A middleman can’t protect your allocation if they don’t control upstream supply. We are the manufacturer — buyers are starting to understand why that distinction matters.
3. “Can you handle our documentation requirements?”
Food manufacturers, RTD brands, and co-packers now need BRCGS or SQF-level documentation from suppliers: FSVP compliance, pesticide residue testing, heavy metals panels, milling traceability. Several procurement buyers told us they dropped suppliers in 2025–2026 because their documentation couldn’t pass internal QA review. Yuminaga is BRCGS Grade A and FSSC 22000 certified. We passed every documentation review at the show.
What this means for sourcing in 2026
The market is maturing fast. Buyers are more sophisticated, more burned, and more willing to pay for verifiable supply than 18 months ago. The right time to lock in a manufacturer relationship is before you need it.
If you were at the show and we didn’t connect: headoffice@yuminagafoods.com