Prices in Qatar: a Clarín envoy entered a supermarket to talk about being Argentinian and shopping in Doha

“Walk, lady, walk”Lita de Lázzari repeated over and over again, when the one-on-one oasis was already starting to become an optical illusion. The housewife and thrifty, who became a television presenter in the 1990s, advised spending soles to find the prices and thus protect the family economy somewhat.

Here in Doha, the advice to walk won’t help much. We were ‘kicking’ the gondolas of the different supermarkets in the Al Sadd area, one of the most populous districts of the city. And, no matter how far we walk, the prices are similar in different places. To complete the negative combo, everything is sumptuous for the Argentinian’s pocket weight. There are exceptions, but they are just that.

Before talking about prices, first you need to do the math. Why the clear accounts with… No, because the official currency of Qatar and which governs all affairs is the riyals and little did we know of its existence and its value. One riyal equals 27 US cents. If we take the dollar obtained in Argentina, which in all its variants is around or more than 300 pesos, the simple rule of three allows us to calculate that a riyal is something like 80 pesos. Rounding, of course.

Another clarification, essential for the Argentine fans who will come to watch the World Cup, they don’t accept all the dollars of this peninsula. At money changers and banks they reject pre-2009 series notes. Here the distinction is not a small head and a large head, but a green and bluish dollar. They only accept those with the latest and greatest security measures.

After the two explanatory asterisks, all that remains is to grab the little monkey and go shopping. The refrigerator needs to be stocked. And let’s start with the basic foods. Fasten your seat belts. A liter of milk costs 550 pesos, a liter and a half liter bottle of mineral water costs 440 pesos, a kilo of flour costs 410 pesos, and maple with 30 eggs costs 2,400. As you can see, we started the tour uphill.

Plus: a 400-gram package of noodles costs $300, a small milk loaf is available for $280, 200 grams of mortadella costs 500 pesos, and machine cheese, in the same proportion, costs around $730. The six-pack of sausages comes to 400 pesos. And to go with mayonnaise, the average dish costs $1600. Oil: Corn, for 1.8 liters, $1,720; sunflower, in the same container, two hundred pesos less; and the half liter of olive is a thousand. Returning to dairy products, a pot of yogurt starts at $240 and a pound of Gouda cheese averages $2,700.

There are no greengrocers or butchers on the street. The supermarket, therefore, is the only place to get two essential foods for the family basket and for a correct diet. Another explanatory stage, even if you may already know it, in Qatar, for climatic reasons, it is very difficult to plant and harvest. In fact, it produces almost no food or inputs that don’t have anything to do with oil. Therefore, so many things come in, the fruits and vegetables are all imported.

That said, let’s go with another list: a kilo of South African grapefruit costs $360, Philippine bananas cost 520 pesos, and apples vary in color and provenance: red (and pale) Lebanese ones fetch $320, and Lebanese South African greens at $320 another two hundred pesos. The Italian ones, also green, reach a thousand pesos per kilo. Going to more luxurious fruits: kilo of avocado and kilo of mango soar above $3120. And the kilo of a nut mix reaches 5,500 dollars. Sheikh thing.

How much does the onion cost!, says the proverb. Here, however, it has a price: 360 pesos per kilo. And to complete the mixed salad there are the other two ingredients: a kilo of tomato costs 1,100 dollars, even if there are some leftovers, for the sauce, which are just over 140 dollars. And the lettuce? The 100 grams is priced at $620.

The tour continues through the gondolas of cleaning and personal hygiene products. The ever vital toilet paper, on average and for 6 rolls of 30 meters each, you pay about a thousand pesos. For the powdered laundry soap, per kilo and a half, it is necessary to invest about 2 thousand pesos. And dish soap starts at $500. Do you have a child? The diapers, the pack of 30, about 4 thousand pesos. There are the same brands as in Argentina, but they are imported from Italy, Germany and Spain. And finally, yerba mate. Yes, it’s also available in Qatar, although as expected, much more expensive than in our country: 250 grams of Piporé is around 800 pesos.

Shall we go with some sweets? I know, we’ve already spent everything we had in our pockets. But being on a diet doesn’t mean you can’t see the menu. The average jar of olives costs 320 pesos, candies, mostly made in Japan, a thousand pesos a bag. A box of gummies, the ones that come in shapes, cost $320, a chocolate-coated wafer, like the ones you find at free shops, cost $80 each, a box of Granola tops $1,000, and a can of energy drink $980 and also leaves you without a ticket to the baker.

Bah, after this note, there are no bakers or jaguars or Evitas or Rocas, nor Franklin, who can stand without leaving the savings bank in the red during this long stay in the land of the World Cup.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.