VietNamNet
Bridge – Vietnamese farmers are now accustomed with the Internet and begin
selling their farm produce online. The high turnover from online sale has
surprised many farmers, who previously knew only to take goods to the markets.

Not only household appliances, clothes or cosmetics, farm produce
nowadays are also sold on online markets. On many websites, farmers are
offering apricot trees, ornamental trees and even chickens for worshiping the
ancestors on Tet days.

Apricot,
chicken… on Internet

Nguyen Van Thuan, a farmer, the owner of an apricot garden in Hiep Binh
Phuoc ward in HCM
City, said that he has
been swamped in work and he does not know anything about computers and
Internet. he became an online seller by chance. One year ago, some students
living near his house found apricot trees in his garden beautiful and they
decided to take pictures of apricot blossoms and then posted them on Internet,
leaving his address. Just one day after, a man called him and said he wanted to
purchase an apricot tree. The man found the online sale so interesting that he
has decided to open an “online apricot market” this year.

Online farm produce markets prove to be very bustling these days.
Farmers are offering chicken, fermented sticky rice, carp, and even the things
needed for worshiping.

“Easy and interesting” are the comments made by farmers about the online
sale. A lot of flower gardeners have found buyers through the advertisements
posted on Internet. However, not all farmers have been successful with the new
sale method. The farmers, who do not have deep knowledge about Internet,
clearly do not have much experience  to
attract buyers.

An apricot gardener in District 9 in HCM City
offered to sell 300 apricot trees. However, his advertisementwas too short and
not informative. Especially, a lot of words were abbreviated that made readers
confused. Right after the advertisement was posted, a reader gave a feedback:
“No one will be interested in your apricot trees, if they cannot see the images
of the trees on the website”.

However, many farmers  are very
experienced in attracting buyers by showing their products on websites, and
then listing the sale prices and suggesting the payment method.

New method
satisfies both sellers and buyers

It is clear that online sale remains a new method for farmers, but it is
not for urbanites. A lot of customers in big urban areas have applauded the new
sale method used by farmers.

Hai, a technical officer of a computer company in Phu Nhuan district,
related that last year he had accidentally accessed some websites where farm
produce were displayed and he found an offer to sell styled apricot trees. The
most important thing was that the offered sale price was just 2/3 of the market
price. Hai and his colleagues immediately went to the address given on Internet
to buy trees and he was very satisfied with his purchase.

Hai has recommended the website to his friends because he said farmers
were very honest and they never cheated buyers like urban traders. Meanwhile,
farmers are also happy with the new online sale method because they are
profitable, while they do not have to carry the products to markets.

Vo Trung Thanh from Chau Thanh district in Hau Giang province said he
still did not understand why his pomelos, which have the shape of a wine gourd,
becameknown to many people.

He related that when he began selling his unusual pomelos on the market,
he received a letter from a friend in Australia with an article about his
pomelos. Now, he begins taking orders in July and August. “Thanks to the online
information, I know that my pomelos have been selling at the prices 2-3 times
higher than my original prices. “I have changed the sale method. Now I sell
pomelos online, and everyonecan contact me to buy them at low prices,” he said.

Dat Viet