I am hoping to do a presentation for my school on Kenya focusing on Kenyan food and how the average Kenyan would spend per week on food. However I cannot find this information anywhere?
I would love to know what every Kenyan buys from the market, particularly what the poorer people buy to feed themselves and their family for a week.
I am hoping to compare the Kenyan shopping list with a British shopping list.
my shoping list inludes:
Maize flour
Sugar
Cooking fat
tea leaves
soap
rice
salt
vaseline
Tissue
Blue band
With 4,000 kshs. I can only budget for 2 people in amonth. some of th things get finished even before the month comes to an end.
What is the government doing about the rising food prices every day.
Mar 07, 2011
info by: Anonymous
Sorry but How Much one kg the pasta to Kenya??
Jun 01, 2010
Normal Shopping List by: Cassandra Marie
Hello,
Funny you posted this because I was just in Kenya and I was doing a lot of the shopping for some local families. There are somethings that are always on the shopping list....
-cooking fat
-chi
-sugar
-maze
-soap
-rice
-a rubber bucket
This is the staple foods that I shopped for when working in Kenya over the last month. Families may change, add to, or get something next time but they are the most basic staple items. Also every supermarket and road side stand will carry these items. My team and I spent about $14-$20 per family and these staples would last about 2 to 3 weeks for a family of 4 to 6.
May 31, 2010
Shopping List by: Archie Melrose
Hiya and thanks for your question - Both Arjen and Irene have covered the essentials in good detail. However I just wanted to add a little input.
When I am in Kenya [Nakuru] my fiance and I go shopping for her mum. We go to one of the local supermarkets [same as UK] and if we want cheaper and fresher fruit and veg its off to the open air market.
Its not hard to buy the most important things such as
Maize Flour
Rice
Sugar
Chapati Flour
Tea
Bar Soap [smelly]
.....and at market its green leaved veg, tomatoes and onions, green !!! bananas [plantain], garlic etc. The green veg leaves are so varied and its not just spinach. Some of them I have never heard of before but they all go into the cookpot to make wonderful stews.
Cost per week? About 20-30 GBP but that can vary if meat or fish is included in the shopping list.
Hope this helps
Archie [moderator]
May 29, 2010
shoppinglist by: Irene O
Dear visitor,
There is a big difference in shopping lists between the people living in the bush and those living in the city. Those jobless and depended from their farms, no money to buy the products they would like to buy.
They live very poorly. There is not supermarket around, the buy milk from the farmer.Or walk for hours to catch water in a ...where animals drink from, women wash their clothes...
If they need to buy items which they really need they either travel by matatu ( this is a van which can carry 14 people but in Kenya often even 20 ) or again walk for hours to the first village where shops are. People living in the bush eat their own vegetables, potatoes, maize.
Thye people living in the city visit the big supermarkets and shop the way we shop here in Europe. Antyhing they need, bread, butter, milk, juices, meat, cookies, cleaning stuff, vegetables, washing powder etc etc. In the big supermarkets in Kenya you can get anything local and imported products.
When I lived in Kenya we used to do shopping a lot in the supermarket and the imported products are quite expensive. But many products are also produced in Kenya and therefore much cheaper.
To make 2 different shopping list I would say for the people living in the bush very shortly.. milk, maize, potatoes, charcoal, sukuma wiki ( kind of spinat which is cheap and they eat a lot)
city people.. those who can afford.. just a shopping list like ours..
Hope this information helps..
Regards
Irene O
May 29, 2010
It depends... by: Arjen (webmaster)
First of all, not all Kenyans eat and buy the same food ingredients. There are differences in traditional meals between tribe. E.g. in the Western part of Kenya (near Lake Victoria), and in near the Indian Ocean coast, people eat more fish. Other tribes focus on game. The Masai on the other hand don't eat any fish nor game (wildlife) but only eat the meat of their livestock, and milk.
But some typical items on a shopping list in Kenya would include:
- maize (it's used to make Ugali (a porridge)
- milk
- meat, e.g. spare ribs for a Nyama Choma meal
- kidney beans and corn, used to make Githeri
- rice
- flour, e.g. to make Chapati (a kind of loaf bread)
- vegetables to make Irio
In many respects, it's not that different from food items in the UK... The bigger cities in Kenya have supermarkets where you can buy most brands that are for sale in the UK too, and Kenya has it's own brands of e.g. soft drinks, beer and spirits. Kenyans also are very good in coffee and especially tea farming.
Maybe the other moderators can add something too. :-)
