Shopping the Mercado Central in Buenos Aires (Wholesale)
Today we are going to visit the Mercado Central (Central Market)–Buenos Aires wholesale food market–with Dr. Christian Rubilar, one of our much-appreciated immigration attorneys in Buenos Aires, who so graciously provided the photos and introduced us to Mercado Central. This will be our first visit to the market as well. We invite you to join us!
Since we always like to go back into the history of this beautiful city, we did a little research on the the Mercado Central. It was first established in Buenos Aires in 1893 as the central wholesale market for the area. As Buenos Aires grew in population, the market grew as well. Finally, it completely outgrew its space and, in 1984, was moved to a location outside the city.
In true Argentina style, the old Central Market was recycled and became a high-end shopping center, Abasto de Buenos Aires, with many shops specializing in name brand imports. Here is just a glimpse of the old Central Market after the Argentina remodelers finished with it. What do you think? Beautiful, isn’t it? We think so.
Today you need a car to go to the present location of the market unless you elect to live closer to it than we do. Car pooling with other buyers would be a fun way to take care of family shopping.
To visit the market from the city proper, you have a bit of a drive. The best time to go is actually in the night or early morning if you want to avoid the traffic. Some shoppers in Buenos Aires report a 30 minute drive at night or at an early hour, and perhaps twice that long in normal traffic. But they also report that prices are highest in the morning and drop as the day wears on as they try to clear out the product for that day.
Our gracious guide, who also shops this market, tells us that the fish market begins at 10 PM and is open until 11 am–that’s pretty much all night. He suggests that we go during the night.
Here is an idea of what driving from the city to the market is like, plus you can see a bit of Buenos Aires infrastructure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsQU-E3nx4A&feature=youtu.be#sthash.EZD8TDkB.dpuf
We arrive at the market and we find that it is huge. We pay the men in the parking lot 5 pesos (about $1 US) to take care of our car. Well . . . let’s go inside and see what we think!
It’s the fish market. Impressive. And this isn’t even all of it!
There’s more!
Mmmm . . . our favorite! Salmon!
Clams
Red Peppers
Melons
Different cuts of beef.
Carrots
Plums
Apples
Variety of fruits and vegetables.
Lettuce
All prices are in Argentina pesos. A kilo is 2.2 pounds. The official exchange rate today is very close to 5 pesos per dollar. The Blue Rate, which technically is illegal but readily available in the city, is $7.50 pesos per $1 US. So depending on the exchange rate you get, this will give you an idea of the prices.
Dr. Rubilar explains that these are the prices when you buy just 1 or 2 kilos. If you buy the whole box /lot/ bag there is about 40% off but you have to haggle for it.
The products are super fresh. The trucks come straight from the farms and they go back empty. And for the most part the farms are in this area. Most products are only hours from the field to the market. The quality is the best.
We see a lot of possibilities here for a family with a freezer. In our case, we would also use our Excaliber food dehydrator, ordered for this power (which is 220) and brought in from the United States.
The longer you are in the area, the more you learn about the possibilities available to you. This is true of most cities and towns. We think that having our own garden with a few fruit trees is the best resource. But for now it has been interesting to see the Mercado Central de Buenos Aires. Our sincere thanks go to Dr. Rubilar!
To read about citizenship n Argentina,
Dr Rubilar’s web site is:
http://50.22.109.32/~rubilar/citizenship
We’ve sincerely enjoyed our visit with you, our friends, once again. Until next week . . . hasta luego!
Arlean
Dear Arlean,
Nice post and beautiful photos.. Thank you.
We’d also like to visit the wholesale fish market during our trip to Buenos Aires. But I have difficulties in finding its location on the internet.
Could you please give me an address or specify the location?
As you mentioned there is an old one which turned into a shopping mall Mercado del Abasto and there is Mercado del Pescado, which is totally somethig else.. These two cause a confusion in finding it.
Thank you very much in advance..
idil
Well you’re way ahead of me Adil. I didn’t even know there was a large fish market in Buenos Aires. Just for you, we did a search and found several suggestions in google. Try searching “wholesale fish market buenos aires” without the quotes and see what you find. And good luck!