Young farmer in Nghe An shares how to sell 1,000 orders online

Choosing agricultural products to start a business

Meeting Vu Van Giap in the largest vegetable field in Quynh Lien commune (Hoang Mai town), it is hard to guess that Giap used to be the owner of a media company with dozens of employees.

Giap said he had more than 10 years of experience in cities like Vinh and Hanoi, and had established a media service company with dozens of collaborators. There was a time when Giap had billions of dollars in his hands. However, the Covid-19 "storm" hit, leaving Giap empty-handed as all his savings, investments in machinery and workers "flew away" with the costs of keeping up with bank interest for more than 2 years of the pandemic.

Farmers in Quynh Lien commune work hard all year round to take care of and grow a large amount of vegetables, tubers and fruits. "However, the fact that agricultural products have fallen in price and growers sometimes have to dump them still makes me very worried. Feeling sorry for my parents and regretting the waste of my hometown's resources, I researched ways to preserve and process agricultural products by drying them" - Vu Van Giap shared.

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Quynh Lien is one of the major vegetable, root and fruit production areas of Hoang Mai Town, more than 90% of Quynh Lien residents live on growing and trading seasonal vegetables and fruits. The Quynh Lien Commune Government as well as many individuals and villages have had many concerns to find solutions to promote and increase the value of agricultural products for their hometown such as setting up a website to introduce products; building OCOP products, growing according to VietGAP standards; opening a factory to process dried vegetables, roots and fruits...

-Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Cao Xuan Phuong Commune -

Build an online sales channel

Vu Van Giap is the second person in Quynh Lien commune to implement a model of drying vegetables, tubers, and fruits with the goal of consuming all products and increasing the value of local agricultural products. This is also the path Vu Van Giap chose to start his business for the second time. The difference that can help Giap achieve initial success with this business model is the way of marketing the products and the goal of ensuring the quality of agricultural products in the production stage.

Giap said: "After mobilizing all the capital and having the support of his family, Giap invested in buying a dryer worth more than 100 million VND to dry radishes, chayote, and carrots using cold drying technology. The deciding factor in product quality is the selection of raw materials. Currently, I mainly dry raw materials grown by my own family and purchase a small amount from people in the commune. Because sales are still slow, I do not dare to purchase much. And the top priority is to ensure that the raw materials are clean, fresh, and processed immediately after harvest."

Currently, every day Vu Van Giap and his family are in charge of harvesting, processing, peeling raw materials and operating the dryer with a capacity of about 120kg of fresh fruits and vegetables per day.

Giap's day almost revolves around the fields and the camera, the phone, both producing, promoting, and being a technician. With more than 10 years of experience in the media service business, Giap has been able to create quality video clips, create his own content on the tiktok channel and other social networks revolving around the story of production and farming associated with the ups and downs of Giap's family as well as the people of Quynh Lien commune. Through the genuine, familiar stories of his hometown people, Giap inserts a message about his own dreams and views when producing and selling his dried vegetables and fruits.

“After a period of building the channel, meeting the criteria to open a shopping cart and livestream to sell directly online, I set a goal of making 1,000 orders of dried vegetables, tubers, and fruits. And by the beginning of March 2025, after 45 days of starting to livestream sales, I had achieved sales of 1,000 orders via the tiktok channel. Although it is not a lot, only an average of 20 orders per day, what gave me more motivation to pursue this business direction is that there were quite a few customers who came back to continue buying after using the product, giving positive feedback on the quality,” said Giap.

Vu Van Giap also shared that he has registered to build OCOP products for his family's dried agricultural products, and is receiving active support and guidance from the government.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuyet, an official of the People's Committee of Quynh Lien commune, said that Vu Van Giap's start-up model is showing quite practical effectiveness, with development opportunities as it both contributes to the consumption of local agricultural products and helps increase the value of products made by local people.