The trade in buffalo sukuti and the pickle made from it is booming in Dharan, Sunsari, as women who prepare the dried meat delicacy in their home kitchens take to social media to sell it far beyond their neighbourhood. According to traders, orders now arrive from various places across Nepal as well as from abroad after they promote their products through platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Shops selling sukuti line Niketan Gali, just east of the main Bhanuchowk intersection in Dharan, where customers come from morning until evening and monthly earnings are reported to reach up to one lakh rupees, as reported by Nagarik News and Pradesh Khabar.
Social media becomes the new shopfront
What began as a home-based activity has grown into a trade with a national and even international customer base, and sellers credit that growth directly to their online promotion. Traders say that once they began showcasing their sukuti and pickle on social media, enquiries and orders started coming in from various places at home and abroad.
The platforms traders mention most often are:
- TikTok, used to promote products to a wide audience of viewers
- Facebook, a key channel for reaching customers and taking orders
- Instagram, where sellers also promote their products
The effect of this visibility is straightforward: a product that was once sold mainly to walk-in customers in Dharan is now being seen by people in distant locations, and those viewers are becoming paying customers. For small producers, this kind of direct promotion means that a simple post can translate into orders from places the seller has never visited, both within Nepal and overseas. The steady arrival of such orders is what traders point to when describing how the business has expanded.
Niketan Gali: Dharan's sukuti address
The physical centre of this trade remains a short lane in the heart of Dharan. Shops selling sukuti line Niketan Gali, located just east of the main Bhanuchowk intersection, and the street has become the place where buyers head when they want the product.
The customer flow at these shops is continuous. Sellers report that customers come from morning to evening, a pattern that reflects the demand the trade now enjoys. With that level of footfall, monthly earnings at these businesses are reported to reach up to one lakh rupees, a figure that underlines how commercially significant the trade has become for those involved.
The concentration of sukuti sellers along a single lane means the area functions as a destination in its own right. Buyers coming to Bhanuchowk know exactly where to go, and the shops there serve them throughout the day, from the morning until the evening.
Women at the centre of the trade
A defining feature of this business is who is running it. Women prepare sukuti and the pickle made from it at home and then sell them, making home kitchens the starting point of the supply that reaches the shops and, increasingly, the customers who order online.
This home-based model has several aspects worth noting:
- Production begins in the home, with women preparing both the dried buffalo meat and its pickle themselves
- The pickle made from sukuti adds a second product line alongside the dried meat itself
- Social media allows these home producers to promote their goods without needing a large marketing budget
The reported earnings of up to one lakh rupees a month show that this is no longer a marginal activity. For the women involved, the trade represents a source of regular income built on skills practised in their own homes, and the growth in orders means that demand for their products continues to rise.
A traditional taste with modern reach
Sukuti, dried buffalo meat, is a long-standing favourite in Nepali food culture, and the pickle prepared from it has helped widen its appeal. Because the meat is dried, the product keeps well and can be sent to customers far from where it is made, which fits naturally with the online orders now arriving from various places across the country and from abroad.
Dharan, a major city in Sunsari district in the east of Nepal, has become closely associated with this trade. The combination of local production skills, a dedicated selling street at Niketan Gali, and the promotional power of TikTok, Facebook and Instagram has allowed the city's sukuti sellers to reach an audience that would have been unimaginable for a purely home-based trade.
The growth of the business also shows how traditional foods can find new markets through digital tools. Sellers did not change the product itself; they changed how it is promoted. By posting about their sukuti and pickle online, they connected with customers scattered across Nepal and beyond its borders, and those connections have turned into sustained orders.
For now, traders in Dharan describe a trade that is growing steadily: customers filling Niketan Gali from morning to evening, orders arriving from home and abroad, and monthly earnings climbing to as much as one lakh rupees. The women who prepare sukuti and its pickle at home have, with the help of a phone camera and a social media account, turned a traditional dried meat into a product with a market that stretches well past the Bhanuchowk intersection where their shops first found their customers.
