Starting a business with eel seeds, earning billions each year

Mr. Nguyen Van Luu (born in 1988, residing in Nghia Phong commune, Nghia Hung district, Nam Dinh province) spent more than 10 years working as a chef for large hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2019, he decided to return to his hometown to start a business raising eels. To date, his farm has become a supplier of eel seeds to all provinces and cities in the North.

Mr. Luu shared that at first he only raised commercial eels. Realizing that the Northern market had a very high demand for eel seeds, he decided to breed eels himself to supply the market.

Breeding eels are raised in fields next to houses and in semi-natural fields, then hatched in barns. When they reach the required size, the eels will be sold to eel farms.

The process from hatching eggs to the time the eels are released from the farm is 3 months, with a standard of 500 eels/kg. Currently, each crop, Mr. Luu's facility supplies the market with about 200,000 eel seedlings, with the selling price ranging from 35-40 million VND/10,000 eels.

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Mr. Nguyen Luu next to the eel tank preparing for sale. Photo: Tuan Nguyen.

On average, each eel crop yields between 700 and 800 million VND. During times of scarcity, the price is even higher.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Luu, eels start to reproduce from March to early December every year, so each year they can harvest 2-3 eel seedlings. The remaining time, from December to the end of February of the following year, is when he focuses on raising commercial eels.

Raising eels only takes about 3 months to be able to rotate a new crop. However, the breeding technique is not simple, especially when the weather in the North is not as favorable as in the South. Right from the stage of releasing the parent eels, then finishing the care, then to the egg-laying stage. After the eels lay eggs, there must be egg incubation techniques, each stage requires good technique and flexibility in handling.

Mr. Luu said that the egg hatching rate at his eel breeding facility is up to 80%, once the eggs hatch, the loss rate is very low. In fact, after 5 years of starting the business, his farm is always in a state of not having enough eggs to meet market demand.

Behind the success of Lao Nong Vlog

Having only appeared for about 2 years, the Tiktok channel Lao Nong (Laonongvlog) has attracted more than 5.2 million likes and over 540,000 followers. Along with that, the Facebook page Lao Nong has also attracted more than 325,000 followers.

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The Old Farmer takes viewers back to an old space. Photo: NVCC.

Lao Nong Vlog is a culinary channel that brings viewers back to their childhood memories with a peaceful countryside space and rustic dishes such as: Braised meat in the harvest season, dried mackerel fried with star fruit, clams cooked with cabbage soup, grilled chicken, rice balls with dried fish,... There are videos that attract tens of millions of views.

The way of preparing the dishes is not too complicated, most of them are traditional dishes of the North and are still familiar dishes in modern life today. Therefore, the channel has both entertainment and high educational value.

The main character who always appears in these culinary videos is a real old farmer - Mr. Nguyen Van Phong, born in 1960 - who has always only known farming work.

Talking to PV. VietNamNet, Mr. Nguyen Van Phong said that there are currently businesses and brands that want to invite him to promote their products, but he has no intention of commercializing this channel.

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Father and son Nguyen Van Phong - Nguyen Van Luu. Photo: Tuan Nguyen.

The special thing behind the initial success of Lao Nong Vlog is his son: the eel "boss" Nguyen Van Luu. Mr. Luu came up with the script idea, directly filmed the video and did the post-production, then posted it on social networks.

“My father is also a person with a passion for food, so he plays the role very well. Along with that, he is the image of a real, honest and simple farmer, so he attracts many viewers with his positive values,” Mr. Luu shared.

“There are things I don’t know, so I have to ask my children, but there are things I know without having to be told. For example, how to boil or roast a chicken to make it look nice and delicious, and how to do each step, etc., I don’t need to be told, that’s my forte,” Mr. Phong proudly boasted.

The creation of the Lao Nong Vlog channel was completely by chance, starting from the fact that Nguyen Van Luu initially only posted a few short entertaining videos. Unexpectedly, the videos were recommended by social networks. He himself had never thought that he would become a digital content creator.

A clip on Lao Nong Vlog channel. Source: Lao Nong Vlog.

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