Abidjan - Post Report Question and Answers
What household or grocery items do you wish you had shipped to post?
This is a DPO post so almost everything can be ordered. Things I would suggest to ship to get to post at the same time as you: paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, etc), laundry soap, personal hygiene products, coffee, any particular dietary need, anything you might consider "Mexican" "Tex-Mex" or "Latin American" cuisine. They are available but the quality is extremely poor. - Mar 2021
None, I have found peanut oil (dip store) Gluten Free Soy (Chinese market) and the regular stores have decent olive oil, GF pastas and breads, perfectly fine spices canned good etc. and there are a few specialty stores. I make my own corn tortillas but there are none here, and also very little chance to get flour tortillas. Lots of Asian and Middle Eastern specialties available here, less Latin/Tex-Mex stuff. We order a few special things from Amazon but they are luxuries. - May 2020
Well, if one is with the US government, then one should know that this is not a consumables post. Having said that, during my time, the US Embassy was able to establish a diplomatic post office (DPOS) which made shipment of internet orders quite easy and expeditious. So, in short there is nothing I wish I had shipped to post other than car parts. European diplomatic mission personnel would ship containers (when allowed) of goods to themselves. Some of these items would include wine, dry food stuffs, etc. Wine, as an example, was easy to find in Abidjan, but like everything else in Subsaharan Africa, extremely expensive. - Feb 2020
Bring liquids, detergent, dishwashing liquid. - Mar 2017
I like having the American staples, because they're more familiar and cheaper to get in bulk at Costco. Same for cleaning supplies. I enjoy American beer, so that's nice to import, since you can't get it locally. - Aug 2015
Cans of tuna and chicken. Boxes of pretzels. Twice the amount of cleaning products (the help here loves to use cleaning products). - Jun 2009
Liquid items that cannot be sent by pouch. Everything else can pretty much be ordered. Most people ship toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning supplies because local quality is not as good. - Jan 2009
