From One Farm to a Network: How HealthyFarm is Reshaping Egg Farming in Vietnam

Imagine a hen that has never felt sunlight on her feathers, never stretched her wings, never done anything but stand in a cage and produce eggs. Now imagine the alternative: hens that walk, fly short distances, dust bathe, and lay their eggs in a nest rather than through the bars of a battery cage. This is the difference HealthyFarm has been working to make possible in Vietnam since 2021, not by telling farmers what to do, but by building the conditions that make change worthwhile.

HealthyFarm, Evergreen Labs’ program supported by World Animal Protection’s Investing in Others programme, is now in its third and most ambitious phase. The first two phases, running from 2021 to 2024, focused on developing supply chains for humane eggs and connecting individual farmers with corporate buyers. The results were real but limited in scale: a one-to-one model where HealthyFarm acted as the bridge between each farmer and each buyer, one relationship at a time.

This phase is different. Rather than acting as the connector, HealthyFarm is building the space where everyone connects themselves.

The first two phases, running from 2021 to 2024, built the foundations from different ends of the chain. Phase 1 centered on direct farmer support: helping individual producers understand what a transition to humane systems would require and walking them through it. Phase 2 shifted focus toward corporate engagement, building relationships with buyers willing to commit to cage-free sourcing and proving that a commercial market for humane eggs could exist in Vietnam. Phase 3 is where those two threads come together. Rather than HealthyFarm continuing to broker each farmer-buyer relationship individually, the network is designed to let farmers and buyers who were cultivated separately in Phases 1 and 2 now connect with each other directly — along with the technical experts, equipment suppliers, and welfare advocates needed to sustain the relationship at scale.

A market that keeps farmers in the dark

To understand why a network matters, it helps to understand what Vietnamese egg farmers are navigating on their own.

Egg prices in Vietnam are not set by a central authority. They shift by region, by sales channel, and sometimes by street. A farmer in Central Vietnam pays more to feed their flock than a farmer in the north, because feed has to be transported further. A farmer selling directly to consumers sees prices move week to week. A farmer locked into a wholesale contract has stability, but no flexibility. And since March 2026, all of them have been dealing with a significant drop in egg prices driven by weaker consumer demand and a rapid increase in the number of new farms entering the market.

For a farmer considering a transition to cage-free practices, which requires investment in perches, nesting boxes, and more space, this kind of market uncertainty is a serious obstacle. Welfare improvements cost money upfront. If the market cannot be read, the risk is hard to justify.

What the network makes possible

Vietnam's First Laying Hen Welfare Network launched in this phase with a target of 50 members. It now has 71. Members include not just farmers but NGOs, technical experts, farm equipment suppliers, corporate buyers, media, and consumers, each with their own account on a shared digital platform.

What makes this more than a directory is the interaction it enables. On the morning of our interview, Quynh Pham, HealthyFarm Project Associate, mentioned that a farmer had just posted a video of their flock to the network's shared chat group, asking other members for advice. Responses came in without any prompting from HealthyFarm. The network was doing what networks do.

“If we work farm by farm, they benefit temporarily,” Quynh explains. “When we build a network, farmers do not need to wait for us. They can connect directly with many stakeholders.” An equipment supplier can find farmer customers. An NGO can build relationships with corporate buyers. A farmer with a question about welfare standards at two in the afternoon does not need to wait for an office to open.

The vision: a tool that reads the market

Beyond the network itself, HealthyFarm is developing something that could address the market uncertainty problem more directly. The AI egg price prediction tool, planned to be embedded within Vietnam's First Laying Hen Welfare Network as an exclusive feature for network members, would monitor historical price data, seasonal trends, and market signals to forecast whether egg prices are likely to rise or fall in the coming weeks.

The logic is straightforward. If the forecast suggests a price drop, the tool would notify a farmer: do not expand your flock right now. If the forecast suggests a rise, the signal shifts: prepare more eggs, the market is about to need them.

“If farmers receive predictions about the market, they will have better decisions,” says Quynh.

The tool is still in development. Collecting reliable historical price data has proved difficult: primary price data is not publicly available through open internet sources, government databases, or commercial retailers, and the prices published on retail websites update too infrequently to reflect real market movements. The team has been building the dataset manually, sourcing data from farm partners, market research, and retail monitoring going back to 2015. It is slow work. But the foundation is being laid, and the case for the tool has never been stronger.

The tool is still in development. Collecting reliable historical price data has proved difficult: primary price data is not publicly available through open internet sources, government databases, or commercial retailers, and the prices published on retail websites update too infrequently to reflect real market movements. The team has been building the dataset manually, sourcing data from farm partners, market research, and retail monitoring going back to 2015. It is slow work. But the foundation is being laid, and the case for the tool has never been stronger.

Happy hens, better eggs, stronger farms

Beneath the platform and the data and the forecasting model is a simpler idea, one that Quynh returns to consistently. When laying hens live well, everything else improves.

HealthyFarm Platform 

Farmers who have completed HealthyFarm’s online training have learned what international humane standards actually require: nesting boxes, perches, outdoor access, enrichment, and discovered that many of them were already part way there without knowing it. That training is already reaching scale: HealthyFarm's May 2026 program drew 104 participants across three sessions, from as far north as Yen Bai to as far south as Long An and Dong Nai. Eighty percent rated the program "Extremely helpful" or "Very useful" for their current farming practices, with participants reporting an average knowledge gain of 4.4 out of 5. “When hens are happy, they produce better eggs,” says Quynh. “If the Vietnam egg industry becomes more developed, farmers will benefit. Their profit will increase and they will be encouraged to treat the hens even better.”

That is the cycle HealthyFarm is trying to set in motion: welfare improvements that make commercial sense, supported by a network strong enough to sustain them, and eventually, a tool smart enough to help farmers navigate the market on their own terms.

HealthyFarm is a program of Evergreen Labs, supported by World Animal Protection’s Investing in Others programme. Learn more at https://www.evergreenlabs.org/healthyfarm-network/home

Written by Nanthatchaporn Weruwan, Communications Intern at World Animal Protection Thailand.