The Philippines Has the Most Affordable Groceries in Southeast Asia

The Philippines has the most affordable food and drinks in the Southeast Asia region.

According to The Philippine Star news report, the average price of groceries in the Philippines is less than P2,500. This is the finding of a study made by iPrice group, an online shopping aggregator.

In the study, iPrice noted that the average price of grocery items in the Philippines totals P2,437. This is at least P200 less than the next lowest average grocery price from Vietnam which averaged P2,687. Both of these average grocery prices are the only groceries to average below P3,000. The next cheapest isÂMalaysia with an average of P3,054 and Indonesia at P3,170.

These prices were made using the average prices of daily supermarket buys such as dairy, bread, rice, meat, fruits, vegetables, and water as well as alcohol and cigarettes.

The southeast Asian countries with the most expensive grocery items were Thailand at P3,442 and Singapore with the highest average price of P5,561.

It was noted in the study that while the prices of common goods of some countries were as low as the Philippines, some key grocery items such as beer, wine, and cigarettes are heavily taxed in other countries. This pushed their average price up compared to those in the Philippines.

The quarantine restrictions implemented in April this year have forced many households to shop online more frequently for their basic necessities compared to previous months the study also showed.

The iPrice study also provided an online grocery shopping guide, including minimum requirements and delivery fees, for 11 online grocery stores located in Metro Manila. These online groceries include AllDay Supermarket, Landers, Puregold, RealFood, Robinsons, SM, S&R, and Wholesome Grocer among others.

The study noted that while S&R, Robinsons, and The MarketPlace offer the lowest delivery rate of P80, only Landers, RealFood, SM, and Wholesome Grocer offer no minimum amount of orders for their shoppers.

* * *

This story originally appeared on Yummy.ph.

* Minor edits have been made by the Realliving.com.ph editors.