What are the most expensive countries to buy food and fruit in the world?
Have you ever been to the grocery store and just thought to yourself that the prices you get might be very different across the border. Have you ever wondered just how much? Well, after researching on the 10 most expensive countries to buy food and fruit in the world I come to you with a definite list of ten places your salary may not amount to much after all. That is, unless you are able to live comfortably in the heart of New York City, since the data we will be using comes from a comparison list straight from Numbeo – the one and only, world’s biggest database of user-contributed information on all sorts of things about all sorts of places. In this list,unlike one would do with the 15 most expensive countries in the world we will be using the “Groceries Index” only since this is food-specific.
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It’s been awhile since people have massively been given no other option than growing, harvesting and processing food for themselves. However, if we put it in historical terms, the concept of walking out to the grocery store to get anything you need for your meal (plus this new thing you’ve wanted to try) is a very recent thing. Even so, ever since bigger cities became a widespread thing, people started aiming to get the most out of their crops in order to sell them to the ones who have no land to grow anything on. On the other hand the people living in bigger, permanent, densely populated settlement had to make enough to be able to buy what was sold on the markets so they turned to every way that would allow them to produce and market a product without having fertile land. Thus were started and developed crafts centers, unions, various other niche businesses, entertainment and anything that allowed those who couldn’t grow crops or raise cattle to do for the ones who had no time for anything else. At the very early stages of this process we can probably find the beginning of what would grow into the modern economy we have today. Starting from a simple necessity, it all spiraled into an almost fractal manner into a mind-boggling, self-contained, unpredictable dynamic system of exchange.
The world had undergone a massive change ever since the concept of grocery shopping at a street market became common. Even so, the basic factors in what determines the price of goods such as fruit, vegetables and meat have stayed the same ever since the introduction of automated cultivation and harvesting. In the developed world, technology is making things cheaper to produce in massive quantities(with the whole “eco & healthy” movement really getting a kick out of that) but in the developing countries or the ones in the grey zone there are still places where you can see a goods production and marketing system like the one from your history books. On the other hand, the lack of free markets in some totalitarian states today also plays a huge role on just how much supply meets demand. It’s all far too complicated to describe in the preface of a short list so we will have to use the user-submitted data from thousands of people from all over the world. Let’s take a look at the results for this quarter of the year.
10. Hong Kong
Kicking things off is Hong Kong, a place where the population is so dense and the economy is making so many rapid leaps that things you take for granted could cost tens of times more there. This apparently includes food and fruit as well.
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9. Australia
Our number nine, Australia, has recently been taking a leading position in cost of living rankings due to a huge number of reasons. Their high cost of groceries is most probably one of them as well.
8. Papua New Guinea
The price of groceries for Papua New Guinea could probably be in part due to the weak buying force and the difficulty to supply shops there on the regular. To add to that, many people still grow all their food and raise all the animals they eat.
7. US Virgin Islands
Even though it could be considered something else than a country on its own, number seven is another archipelago that will stun you with its beautiful scenery, friendly people… and grocery costs. The reasons for that may be far more complicated than the ones mentioned but at first sight, that seems to be the problem.
6. Iceland
Iceland is another remote place where big supermarkets are sparse out of the main couple of cities. Once out of the capital or its southern neighbors, grocery prices take a leap upwards due to the high cost of transport and low demand.
5. South Korea
South Korea is an overall expensive place, whatever aspect of it you choose to look at. Aside from the widely developed and densely populated cities, this country also has a shrinking rural part where some of the grocery products are produced.
4. Norway
Norway takes the fourth spot in the list of the 10 most expensive countries to buy food and fruit in but that shouldn’t be a major concern if you plan on moving there since this data only looks at prices and their average salary is well past the point of being adequate.
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3. Kuwait
Kuwait has seen an extensive period of its economy making leaps and bounds from what it used to be before oil reserves were discovered there. Being one of the most expensive places to live in, it is also a very high income economy and their currency is the most valued worldwide.
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2. Venezuela
Venezuela’s economy in recent days has really been a case for the books and this does not come as a compliment. Aside from being one of the most poverty-stricken places on the globe, it is also one of the most expensive places to get a meal.
1. Switzerland
One of the richest countries in the world – Switzerland – takes the first spot in out list of the 10 most expensive countries to buy food and fruit in the world but that probably only bothers tourists there since the permanent population can afford it easily.
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