On this beautiful autumn morning, we are deeply troubled and want to share our concerns with you. It appears that tariffs are here to stay, and we continue to navigate the ever-changing rates for our tea farms around the world. The other aspect of tariffs that you may not be aware of is the additional service fee attached to them. Regardless of the tariff rate, we are forced to pay an additional 5-7% fee per shipment to the USA. The increased tariffs and administrative oversight to collect them have resulted in the Customs offices throughout the USA being completely overwhelmed. There was a long-standing Customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less to be exempt from tariffs, but in early September an executive order ended this practice. Now all shipments need to clear Customs and are subject to the country of origin’s applicable tariff rate, which ranges from 10 percent to 50 percent. This change has created a huge backlog for the Customs officials. This situation is directly impacting our supply chain. Currently we have shipments from Japan with our precious matcha either lost or delayed! The tracking message changes regularly from being delayed to being lost! We have paid thousands of dollars for this tea from Japan and may never receive it. Sadly, you may not be able to enjoy your matcha or other excellent teas from Japan that we have sourced for years. This was in April 2025. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Happy Earth Tea (@happyearthtea) For our Nepal tea lovers, we cannot even get samples delivered. The last batch was destroyed by Custom officials. We suspect they are just overwhelmed because samples weigh less than a pound and have a very low monetary value. All the chaos and uncertainty have led a bunch of countries to suspend sending USA bound packages because they don’t know how to handle the administrative part of tariff collection. In the past, carriers like FedEx, UPS and DHL paid the tariffs on our behalf and then collected them from us prior to delivery. Sadly, these parcels are now getting stuck in Customs as well. We share all this to let you know that we are doing everything we can to ensure we keep our tea supply intact, but we are feeling rather powerless now. So, our message to you is to enjoy every sip of your tea. Each tea is a beautiful gift from nature coupled with passionate human tea makers who bring out the best character of this glorious leaf. We ask for your patience and understanding as we try to navigate these challenges. In the meantime, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for being on this journey with us.
On this beautiful autumn morning, we are deeply troubled and want to share our concerns with you. It appears that tariffs are here to stay, and we continue to navigate the ever-changing rates for our tea farms around the world. The other aspect of tariffs that you may not be aware of is the additional service fee attached to them. Regardless of the tariff rate, we are forced to pay an additional 5-7% fee per shipment to the USA.
The increased tariffs and administrative oversight to collect them have resulted in the Customs offices throughout the USA being completely overwhelmed. There was a long-standing Customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less to be exempt from tariffs, but in early September an executive order ended this practice. Now all shipments need to clear Customs and are subject to the country of origin’s applicable tariff rate, which ranges from 10 percent to 50 percent.
This change has created a huge backlog for the Customs officials. This situation is directly impacting our supply chain. Currently we have shipments from Japan with our precious matcha either lost or delayed! The tracking message changes regularly from being delayed to being lost!
We have paid thousands of dollars for this tea from Japan and may never receive it. Sadly, you may not be able to enjoy your matcha or other excellent teas from Japan that we have sourced for years.
This was in April 2025.
For our Nepal tea lovers, we cannot even get samples delivered. The last batch was destroyed by Custom officials. We suspect they are just overwhelmed because samples weigh less than a pound and have a very low monetary value.
All the chaos and uncertainty have led a bunch of countries to suspend sending USA bound packages because they don’t know how to handle the administrative part of tariff collection. In the past, carriers like FedEx, UPS and DHL paid the tariffs on our behalf and then collected them from us prior to delivery. Sadly, these parcels are now getting stuck in Customs as well.
We share all this to let you know that we are doing everything we can to ensure we keep our tea supply intact, but we are feeling rather powerless now. So, our message to you is to enjoy every sip of your tea. Each tea is a beautiful gift from nature coupled with passionate human tea makers who bring out the best character of this glorious leaf. We ask for your patience and understanding as we try to navigate these challenges. In the meantime, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for being on this journey with us.
