Visitors as well as foreign residents living in Mexico enjoy locally-produced fresh foods at affordable prices. The affordability is, in good part, due to Mexico being a huge grower of fruits and vegetables, and so these foods are readily available to local consumers.
Because it’s grown locally the food is much fresher, it may not have to be refrigerated, and its transportation costs are lower. Most of the ‘exotic’ fruits and vegetables which are relatively expensive overseas — like avocados, limes, mangoes, and papaya — are readily available at lower prices in Mexico because they are all grown locally and so don’t require the complex, time-sensitive, transport logistics needed to export and sell fresh foods to far-distant places.
Restaurants and local Mexican diners, known as comedores, source their ingredients from local markets, and the lower price of fresh food ingredients here is one of the reasons why eating out is not as expensive as it is in the US, Canada, and Europe.
If you simplify your diet by eating more fresh local produce and buying less processed food, you can cut your monthly grocery bill dramatically by living in Mexico. “Luxury” food items, like imported European cheeses, imported wines and spirits, some cured hams, as well as other specialty foods, tend to cost the same or more in Mexico that the price in their country of origin—making them expensive relative to local earnings.
Whether you are visiting Mexico and want to visit the local markets, or when you’re staying here longer, you can learn more about buying food on our guide to Markets and Shopping in Mexico.
If you want more details about the price of foods (as well as a wide range of other goods and services), connect to the the Guide to the Cost of Living in Mexico here on Mexperience, which contains a comprehensive analysis that will enable you to consider your lifestyle choices and make a detailed comparison of prices between foods, goods, and services in your home country and those in Mexico.
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It’s a satisfyingly Zen-like process to eat wonderful food at home here. We go 2 or 3 times a week to local markets to admire and buy from the beautiful pyramids of fresh fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, peppers, herbs and cheese. I knitted several market bags so that we come home with no plastic. In our kitchen, we fill the sink with water, squirt in the BacDyn (a disinfectant for water and foods), drop in all foods that won’t be peeled, and let them soak for 15 minutes. A salad spinner speed-dries the lovely lettuce quickly, and we’re ready for delicious salads, soups full of squash, carrots, potatoes, guacamole in the evening…heavenly!