When they started raising shrimp on their farm in Ly Nhon Village of HCM City’s Can Gio District, Vo Van Trac and his wife, Tran Mai Phuong, set up a website, hoping to boost sales.
The resulting website (www.vietlinh.com.vn) also provides information on raising shrimp, dealing with their ailments and selling the crustaceans for a high price, said Trac.
“We also help other farmers set up their own web presence so they can ex-change information, particularly on overcoming a particular challenge such as the falling price of shrimp,” he said, adding that the website accounts for a significant percentage of his orders.
As a result of their expanding internet presence, Trac and his fellow farmers earn VND100-200 million a year from raising shrimp for domestic use and for export.
Since setting up his own website, Tran Van Chau, who lives in the same city as Trac, has received many more orders for the pet fish he sells.
Chau is reported to be the first farmer in the city who learned how to set up a website to popularise his products abroad.
He said in the past he wanted to export fish to the US market and a number of European countries, but didn’t know to do it until 2010, when he met a technician from a city centre.
“By offering interesting photos with descriptions in both Vietnamese and English, my website helped me advertise my fish abroad. I now have many overseas customers,” said Chau, adding that thanks to the web, his pet fish sales increased 40 per cent from last year.
Chau said he plans to buy a domain and key words in Google so his website can reach more customers.
However, he remains afraid of direct contact with foreign customers because his English is still not so good.
Although foreign countries offer a huge potential market for pet fish, the language barrier continues to present a problem not only for Chau but for many other farmers in Viet Nam, he said.
2009 Viet Nam News