With all the talk of a global food and energy crisis we take a look at prices in North East Thailand.

Overall the cost of living is still great value but of course nowhere is immune and we have felt a slight impact here. So let’s look at some examples with up to date information. Prices here are from Khon Kaen with similiar prices in Udon Thani.

Even though meat prices are up, restaurants are not passing on this to customers and if they are it’s only a fraction of the temporary rise in costs.

For example, Chicken per kilo was incredbile value at 45 baht at wholesalers, however that has recently nearly doubled to 89 baht per kilo. Most of the daytime Thai venues have kept prices the same 35 to 60 baht for a standard meal. In some case we’ve seen a 5 baht rise in top end products. Pork and Beef have kept fairly stable although there was a spike in prices around Chinese new year this returned to normal. Pork is 157 baht per kilo while beef is 300 baht.

Another factor for eateries is the cost of cooking oil which has risen. This is probably due to the Indonesian ban on exporting Palm oil which is used a lot by street vendors here. Again restaurants are not passing this on and this may even have a postive impact with healthier oils or at least less oil being used!

The fuel price seems to be up around 20%.  That’s just anecdotal evidence from my trips to the PTT garage. Gas 91 is 43 Baht per litre.

So we are certainly not suffering to the extent other regions have been hit.

In fact most things remain amazing value, accomodation and transport still a fraction of the price in the south nevermind the rest of the world.

Reading local website sources there seems to be a concerted effort to keep prices the same.

Beer has always been a luxury product but still cheap at around 70-80 Baht for a large Leo (660ml) in bars. You can buy two large beers for around 100 Baht in the 7-11.

Wine has also been a luxury here although with the Laos border now open that problem is solved if you visit Laos regulary.

To sum up, so far so good. Value here remains excellent and the cost of living is still a big draw to a region that is developing with all modern amentities.