Philippine grocery items cheapest in Southeast Asia — survey

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has the cheapest grocery items among markets in Southeast Asia, according to price aggregator iPrice.

Amid the ongoing pandemic, iPrice said top online groceries in the country registered a notable increase in traffic this year.

The iPrice study showed the Philippines has the most affordable grocery items in Southeast Asian at an average price of P2,437.

The study looked at the average prices of grocery items such as dairy, bread, rice, meat, fruits, vegetables, water, alcohol and cigarettes.

Next to the Philippines in offering affordable grocery items was Vietnam with an average price of  P2,687, followed by Malaysia at P3,054, and Indonesia at P3,170.

“Grocery items in Malaysia and Indonesia are fairly inexpensive as well, but items like beer, wine, and cigarettes are heavily taxed, which makes these items more than twice as expensive as the same items in the Philippines,” iPrice said.

Countries with the most costly grocery items in Southeast Asia are Singapore with an average price of P5,561, and Thailand at P3,442.

The study also showed visits to top grocery websites in the Philippines went up as more Filipinos found themselves purchasing essential products online with restrictions being imposed as the number of COVID-19 infections increased.

In particular, iPrice said online grocery visits in April are 78 percent more than the visits in February when the country had lower daily COVID cases.

As daily COVID-19 cases rose due to the Delta variant in August, online grocery sites reached the highest number of web visits for the year at 1.4 million, up 21 percent compared to the previous month and 89 percent more than February’s.

“The online groceries’ web traffic has maintained above 1.1 million visits from April to August since the number of daily cases has not quite gone back to the same rate in the earlier months of the year,” iPrice said.

To provide a guide to consumers, iPrice compared the minimum amount for orders and delivery fees of 11 online grocery stores in Metro Manila.

Those without minimum amount for orders are RealFood, Wholesome Grocer, Landers and SM.

Meanwhile, Shopwise, Puregold, S&R, Robinsons, AllDay Supermarket and The MarketPlace have a similar minimum amount for orders at P1,000, while WalterMart’s is at P2,000.

In terms of delivery fees, S&R, Robinsons and The MarketPlace offer the lowest similar rate of P80.

WalterMart’s is at P99, while Puregold, RealFood and SM charge P150.

Wholesome Grocer’s delivery fee is at P160, while Shopwise has a P200 rate.

AllDay Supermarket’s delivery fee depends on the location, while Landers’ is based on the items purchased.