Long before chewing gum made it to Nepal, locals were occupying their mouths with a home grown variety of snack food known as churpi. The ultra hard dried cheese is still popular among Nepalis today, particularly when traveling, but it is something of an acquired taste for outsiders.

Churpi is produced mainly in Nepal’s hill regions and is made from dried cow, buffalo or yak buttermilk or yoghurt. It’s eaten either on its own as a kind of cheesy all-day sucker or softened up in soups. Production methods have changed little from the traditional process, in which the milk is stirred in an indigenous cylindrical churner made of wood and bamboo strips.

Churpi production provides good income and employment opportunities for landless and marginalised people in the remote, hilly regions. MEDEP supports churpi producers in Nuwakot and Ramechhap, providing both entrepreneurship and technical skills training, assisting with the purchase of necessary technology and equipment, helping to improve the marketability of the product and building market linkages.