How much do Venezuelans spend on food?

At CostLiving’s moderate tier, food runs $358 a month for a single person in Venezuela, about a quarter of the $1,400 monthly benchmark and unusually high relative to housing, which costs less ($291). That inversion is the Venezuelan food story in one line: imported, dollar-priced groceries in an economy where rents collapsed. For households earning in bolivars rather than dollars, the picture is starker, food regularly absorbs the majority of local incomes, which is why remittances from relatives abroad function as grocery money for a large share of families. What a food budget buys also varies wildly by channel: municipal markets and local produce stretch much further than the dollar-priced bodegones stocked with imported brands, where prices match or beat US shelves. A foreigner cooking mostly local ingredients can eat well inside the moderate tier; anyone recreating a US pantry will spend US money doing it. Context and full category breakdowns are on our Venezuela cost of living page.