After graduating from Duy Tan University majoring in business administration, Lam Phung Diep, born in 1990, from Thang Binh district in Quang Nam province, worked as a manager for a Da Nang-based company and married Vo Thi Kim Oanh, born in 1990.

With monthly income of VND20 million, the young couple led a comfortable life. However, they did not like their boring jobs, which forced them to work extra hours all the time. Therefore, in 2014, they returned to their hometown to start a business amid opposition from their parents.

At first, they raised bamboo rats but after one year, most of the bamboo rats died, while the survivors could not reproduce. With the modest capital left, they tried hydroponic vegetable cultivation, but they did not sell, and lost all their money.

In 2016, they borrowed VND1 billion to act as a fowl feed sale agent in the locality. However, because of the epidemic, ducks died en masse and farmers incurred a big loss. To pay debts, the young couple had to sell all of their assets.

After three failed attempts to start a business, the debt was VND1 billion. However, they decided to borrow VND100 million to ‘start from the very beginning’.

Learning a lesson from the failed attempts, they became more cautious. Diep raised 1,500 black chicken for meat and eggs, and sold the eggs via social networks. As revenue increased steadily, he could pay back the debt.

In 2023, realizing that resorts and hotels tended to prefer cage-free chicken eggs, they decided to raise them.

“I heard that a fowl farm in Binh Thuan had a certificate on 'humane' (not raised in cages) chicken eggs. I also realized that demand for the eggs from fowl raised according to animal welfare standards was very high, though these eggs were 20-30 percent more expensive than normal eggs. I believed this was a great opportunity,” he recalled.

Guided by specialists, he invested VND1 billion in the model and rented 2,000 sq m for a fowl farm. All the facilities at the farm meet Certified Humane standards. Consumers feel secure when eating the eggs produced by the happy chickens.

In early 2024, Diep’s farm was granted an HFAC certificate (Humane Farm Animal Care).

Diep said that since demand for cage-free chickens was very high, he expanded the farm. At present, he pockets VND50 million a month.

Ha Nam