Where chickens listen to music, live in air conditioning, and eat vegan feed

With over 20 years of experience in the veterinary medicine and aquaculture industries, Lam Thuy Ai, CEO of Mebi Farm Joint Stock Company, understands exactly what is best for livestock, community health, and the environment.

"Why do Vietnamese people rarely have the opportunity to use truly high-quality products that meet international standards at a reasonable price?" This was the question that constantly plagued Ai. It drove her and her associates to embark on a journey to build a farm based on a closed-loop model, applying modern Japanese technology to create products that are safe and transparent right from the source.

Building trust with the "pinky egg"

Mebi Farm’s 72-hectare facility is strategically invested in Son My commune, Lam Dong province. It is isolated from residential areas to protect the ecosystem and ensure absolute biosecurity for the flock. The farm's infrastructure includes facilities for pullets (young hens) and laying hens, alongside comprehensive systems for water treatment (waste and drinking), manure processing, air filtration, egg collection and packaging, a feed mixing station, and renewable energy.

The farm operates on six "Green Pillars": clean water, clean air, vegan feed, renewable energy, manure processing, and waste circulation.

"Technology can be purchased, and equipment can be installed, but a green agricultural model is only sustainable when operated with discipline, standards, and absolute transparency. From genetics, operational processes, personnel management, finance, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) to traceability, every stage must be unified. When governance is solid, the chain can expand safely and develop sustainably”, Lam Thuy Ai, CEO of Mebi Farm. 

In the context of rising demand for safe food, Ai emphasized that businesses must play the long game and act with integrity to build consumer trust.

"We chose a difficult but sustainable path: chickens eat 100% vegan feed, with no antibiotics, hormones, or banned substances. They live in a cool, clean environment, are not forced to lay, and listen to music. Everything is 100% transparent thanks to our traceability system and operation according to Japanese standards. When you do it right, do it for real, and persist, the market will accept you. Trust is not built by slogans, but by actions," Ai stated.

Returning to the farm after nearly a year, visitors are impressed by the poetic scenery amidst the melaleuca forest. With clean vegetable gardens, trellises of green gourds and luffa, and clear lakes, one might mistake the facility for a resort rather than a livestock operation. The production area is quiet, sparsely staffed, and impeccably clean—devoid of the odors typically associated with chicken manure or waste. Instead, it is a modern farm run by automation.

Mebi Farm's smart livestock ecosystem is 100% automated, from feeding, egg collection, and packaging to the control of temperature, humidity, and light. IoT sensors monitor environmental indices by the minute, while AI assists in the precise traceability of every single egg.

"While traditional farms still rely on experience, we use data as our foundation, technology as our tool, and standardization as our operational discipline," Ai said. She recalled the early days when an air conditioning unit malfunctioned, forcing the entire team to stay up all night because a deviation of just one degree could stress the chickens and reduce egg quality.

"That effort is why we were so emotional when we saw the first 'Pinky Egg' with its natural pink shell and thick yolk," Ai smiled.

Smart ecosystem and sustainable governance

Nguyen Van Nga, Deputy CEO of Mebi Farm, explained that to produce safe eggs, the farm applies a synchronized management system based on seven factors: livestock environment, biosecurity, the flock, feed, water, care, and technology.

Laying hens are housed in rooms maintained at 26–28°C. They are fed fresh mash produced the same day and drink UF-filtered water that is purified yet retains natural minerals to optimize nutrition.

Mebi Farm controls biosecurity across four levels, from the administrative area to the barns. The health of the flock is traced back to the parents, hatchery, and transport. Disease control begins at one day old, ensuring uniformity in health and physique. Feed quality is strictly controlled with records traceable to each batch, and the 100% UF-filtered water is tested periodically. Care procedures follow a one-way principle with full logging, and staff are trained in food safety and biosecurity.

Once laid, eggs are automatically collected and transported directly to the processing and packaging center. The entire livestock facility is managed by automation engineers. Consequently, from the moment the egg leaves the nest until it appears on supermarket shelves, there is almost no human intervention.

At the egg factory, products move via conveyor belts where they are candled and graded by Japanese equipment, then sterilized with UV rays before packaging. The production management system operates under ISO 22000:2018 standards, applying comprehensively to all stages: pullets, layers, health care, feed, clean water production, supplies, and egg processing and packaging.

"Safe eggs must be safe from the inside out. The health of the chickens, their feed, water, and living environment are all controlled. Each egg can be transparently traced from farm to table, giving consumers peace of mind," Mr. Nga emphasized.

Mebi Farm's high-tech livestock model aims to create quality, safe eggs, contributing to improving community health and protecting the ecosystem. This approach aligns with the green development goals of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.

With a scale of over 1.2 million laying hens and 400,000 pullets raised in a closed model, Mebi Farm targets a supply of 375 million eggs per year, gradually contributing to the new rural development efforts of Son My commune, Lam Dong province.