Visitors and foreign residents living in Mexico enjoy fresh local produce at affordable prices.
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 comedones, 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 dramatically cut your monthly grocery bill by living in Mexico. “Luxury” food items, like imported European cheeses, imported wines, spirits, some cured hams, as well as other specialty foods, tend to cost the same or more in Mexico than 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.
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