JA Tendo Foods, a 25-year-old Yamagata food brand, joined Temu’s Local Seller Program in December 2025. Within two months, the platform became its fastest-growing sales channel.
The company is affiliated with the nationally recognized Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) brand and sells locally grown rice and fruit. There are no registration or listing fees on Temu and the platform’s discovery model surfaces JA Tendo's listings to potential buyers.
JA Tendo is using Temu's pre-order feature to forecast demand for prized Yamagata cherries, which have a short six-week harvest season. It plans to advertise on the platform to supplement the organic traffic that has driven growth so far.
For nearly 25 years, JA Tendo Foods has sold Yamagata's most prized exports, including cherries, La France pears and premium Yukiwakamaru rice. The company joined Temu in December 2025 with modest expectations.
Within two months, the platform became its fastest-growing sales channel. By May, the company had recorded 24,000 transactions, and a savory curry bun had become a breakout hit.
JA Tendo had sold online for 15 years across eight other marketplaces before joining Temu. None had moved its products at this pace.
“Initial growth was faster compared with other marketplaces,” said Mayumi Kato, the company's e-commerce manager. “We realized that Temu has a huge customer base. The volume was much larger than we expected.”
By January, Temu was JA Tendo's top-performing sales channel.
Yamagata's mark of quality
JA Tendo is based in Tendo, Yamagata Prefecture, and sells locally grown agricultural products and prepared foods through online and physical stores. The company is part of a farmer-owned cooperative and carries the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) brand, a mark of quality and local sourcing.
Shoppers in Japan are turning to digital marketplaces like Temu for everyday essentials, including food, in search of value and variety. A 2025 Ipsos survey found that 76% of Temu users in Japan said their everyday shopping costs had fallen since joining the platform.
To reach these customers, Japanese food brands and retailers are joining the platform’s Local Seller Program. Besides JA Tendo Foods, beef bowl chain Matsuya and seafood producer Shioso Shoten have started selling on Temu since the program launched in 2025.
A different pricing model
For staples like rice, price tends to dominate online, and even established brands don't always have the edge, Kato said.
Temu works differently from the other marketplaces JA Tendo had used. There are no registration or listing fees, and sellers can see their margins clearly before listing products. The platform's discovery model surfaces listings to shoppers browsing similar categories. That setup allows JA Tendo to price its products competitively.
"We've struggled with margin pressure," Kato said. "But Temu's pricing structure has helped us generate strong sales."
While Yukiwakamaru rice is the bestseller on Temu as expected, the surprise hit was curry bread, a savory bun filled with Japanese curry that sold roughly five times its monthly volume on other platforms.
Cherries are next
Next up is arguably JA Tendo's hardest category: Yamagata cherries. The fruit is prized for its sweet-tart flavor and crisp texture. But it has a short shelf-life and a six-week harvest window and yields that shift with the weather. Kato plans to use Temu's pre-order feature, which lets sellers take orders ahead of the harvest, to gauge demand and plan volumes accordingly.
The team already has a small precedent to work from. A January trial of apples, some 170 cases of 10kg each, sold out faster than expected. The company is now sourcing larger quantities of fruit for the coming season.
It plans to add paid advertising to scale seasonal products beyond the organic traffic that has driven growth so far. Kato sees it as the next step, particularly for newer products and seasonal ranges that benefit from more visibility.
"At our company, we're always about challenging ourselves and adopting new things," she said.