Cosmetically imperfect mikan and dekopon, long passed over by supermarkets for their size and shape, became GGY Package's top-performing products after the Kumamoto orange wholesaler listed them on Temu.
Within two months of joining in November 2025, Temu overtook every other platform GGY sold on, pushing its monthly revenue to a 50 percent jump from its prior plateau.
GGY is now leasing orchards from retiring local farmers to grow its own fruit, and expanding the disability employment program that handles its sorting and packing.
Hidetoshi Goto has spent years figuring out what to do with fruit that supermarkets won't take.
GGY Package, his Kumamoto, Japan-based fruit wholesaler, packs and ships mandarins of every shape and size. The ones that meet supermarket display standards move easily through conventional channels. The rest — lopsided, undersized, outside the standard sizing — taste no different but have nowhere obvious to go.
From packer to seller
GGY started as a wholesale packer supplying supermarkets with mandarins, potatoes and onions. It got into e-commerce about a decade ago after Goto noticed a client he was packaging mandarins for was shipping large volumes of fruit online.
"That's when I realized that if we sold directly ourselves, we might actually be able to offer better prices," said Goto.
He started listing on several e-commerce platforms, building a steady business around boxes of 10 kg fruit that became his best sellers. But over the years, revenue hit a plateau.
In November 2025, Goto started selling the produce on online marketplace Temu. Within two months, Temu had become the company's top online sales channel, overtaking every platform GGY had been selling on. By January 2026, monthly revenue had hit ¥60 million — a 50 percent jump from the ceiling Goto had spent years trying to break through.
Reaching new buyers on Temu
The difference, Goto said, came partly from reach and partly from support he hadn't encountered elsewhere. A dedicated account manager helped him with product listings, promotional timing and inventory planning. "We received concrete advice on how to present our products effectively and how to respond quickly to demand fluctuations," he said. Temu also translated GGY's listings into Vietnamese — something Goto had wanted but couldn't do on other platforms, having noticed Vietnamese residents in Japan buying his citrus without any localized listings to help them.
Goto said the platform also brought in a younger customer base and more repeat buyers than he had seen before.
GGY now lists 22 products on Temu, including mandarins, melons, apples and Beni Haruka sweet potatoes, with something in season year-round. Each product listing is marked kikakugai — non-standard in Japanese — with the size range included. Customer reviews describe the mandarins as "sweet and delicious."
Reinvesting in Kumamoto
Kumamoto's farming population is aging and many orchards are left dormant when their owners retire. Goto has started leasing some of those orchards, moving GGY from a buy-and-sell operation into one that grows its own fruit. "Going forward, we want to deliver fruit we grow ourselves to customers nationwide," he said.
The company also runs a disability employment facility with more than 30 workers who handle sorting and packing. When Temu orders surged over the year-end period, it prompted GGY to start planning for a second facility. Some workers have already begun moving into the farming side, harvesting and growing crops outdoors alongside GGY's expanding orchard operations.
"By taking on agriculture, we hope to build an environment where people with disabilities can work more freely and confidently," said Goto.