Antananarivo - Post Report Question and Answers
How would you describe the availability and cost of groceries and household supplies relative to your home country?
Good supply, wide range of products imported from France. - Jul 2020
If you're willing to compromise on brand and a little bit on quality, you can find almost everything in Antananarivo with a few exceptions. Occasionally stuff will be in stock for brief periods only - the good cheddar cheese, certain beers, flour tortillas, etc. But overall, the grocery shopping here is pretty good. Imported stuff is similar to US prices; anything local (meat, fruit, vegetables, some staples) is dirt cheap. - Mar 2017
For the most part groceries are decent here--French influence? Good choices, decent quality. Best of all the bread is good and meat cuts recognizable and without bits of bone/ gristle. You can get most familiar things, cost is pretty good mostly. - Jun 2016
There are several grocery stores (Dutch and French chains) that carry a good selection of items. - Oct 2015
Excellent availability of groceries. There are major international grocery stores with products from Europe with a bit of a markup. The local fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry etc are varied, excellent quality and reasonably priced. - Mar 2015
You can get almost anything you want here, but you rarely, if ever, will find American brands. Most brands are South African or French. Our friends coming from other African posts think the supermarkets here are great; those coming from Latin American, Asia or Europe seem to complain more. If you're with the embassy you can order many things through the pouch. You also get a consumables shipment. There is an awesome farm that sells organic produce and farm-fresh eggs and naturally raised chickens, ducks, rabbits and sometimes pork. You can order from their website and they deliver to Ivandry! Each of the three main supermarket chains has a small organic section. The cost at supermarkets depends on what you buy. If you shop simply and don't go overboard on imported goods, then the costs are high but not outrageous. Most imported goods are shockingly expensive - $10 for cereal, $5 for a small bag of shredded cheese, $8 for a small bag (1/4 cup) bag of walnuts. It's kind of annoying at times to have to pay so much, but we don't spend our money on much else, so it hasn't been that big of a deal. - Apr 2013
There are three major international grocery store chains (two French, one South African) which stock nearly everything. There are also local markets where you can get meat, fish, veggies and fruit. I find the food to be relatively cheap, as long as you aren't buying only American-branded cereals and the like. - Apr 2010
Availability good - mostly all French imports. South African supermarket chain of Shoprite there, so south african products available too. Fresh products availability good, but cleanliness limited. Relative cost...hmmm...this is difficult since I don't have a country base/index to compare it to. Fruit and veg cheap. Lets say my monthly grocery bill (excluding household cleaning supplies and alcholic beverages) came to about around 2,000 euros. Please bard in mind that we are a family of 3, and lived off imported goods, hardly shopped at the local markets (much cheaper) and only bought imported dairy products. - Dec 2008
