Is Portugal expensive in terms of food and drink?

While Portuguese cuisine may not be as internationally known as Italian or Japanese, Portugal has some of the tastiest dishes in the world, and Taste Atlas even recognizes Portuguese cuisine as the 4th best in the world, only behind Italian, Japanese, and Greek.

Portugal's wine culture is also extremely prevalent, best exemplified by the legendary sweet Port wine from the city of Porto, Portugal's second largest city. Madeira wine, although not so sweet, is a basic element of Portuguese wine culture and was the favorite wine of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who used it in the toast to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Despite these cultural and gastronomic landmarks, which have marked not only Portugal but also the world, food and drinks in Portugal are not expensive.
Groceries
In Portugal, there is a term that is often heard; the "essential food basket". Literally translated as "essential food basket", it is used to describe about 63 food products considered fundamental for a typical and varied Portuguese diet. When the term is applied, it generally refers to the price of 63 food products. This does not necessarily mean that a person would buy all of these products at once in the basket, but it does serve to give an idea of how much a person can expect to spend when buying these items

The 63 food products include: miscellaneous meats, including beef, pork, and chicken; various fish, namely cod, salmon, sea bream, sea bass and fresh fish; frozen foods, including deep-frozen peas, breaded fish; fruits and vegetables, including oranges, apples, bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, carrots; dairy products, including cheeses, milk, butter and yogurts; and other miscellaneous products, such as olive oil, spaghetti, flour, cereals, salt, sugar, bread, etc.

In addition to local grocery stores, the main supermarkets in Portugal are Portuguese retailers Continente and Pingo Doce, German supermarkets Lidl and Aldi, French stores Auchan and Intermarché, and Spain-based Mercadona has also recently made significant progress in Portugal. The 63 essential food products can be found in any of these supermarkets.

DecoProteste, the consumer protection agency in Portugal, in its latest update in March 2024, puts the average price of the basket at around €238.36, which is equivalent to about €260.00, or about £203.00 per month. The agency took into account various supermarket prices available in Portugal and calculated the average price of food products in the essential food basket.

By comparison, Statista, a reputable research and statistical research, estimates the price of the "basic" food basket at $210.00 in January 2023, an amount that has likely increased since then. Overall, the difference is surprisingly insignificant and economic inflation plus the ongoing crisis in Ukraine are the main reasons behind the current food basket prices in Portugal, but the country more than makes up for it in other sectors, including medical care, child care, education, and household bills, among others.