The CCSI was assessed at C$5.58 per gram this week, down 0.8% from last week’s C$5.63 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,093 per pound at the current exchange rate.
Each week, Business of Cannabis delivers a series of insights from our partners at Cannabis Benchmarks®.
This week, Cannabis Benchmarks examines Canada’s expanding role in international medical cannabis markets. Dried cannabis flower and cannabis oil exports more than doubled in 2020, while imports dropped to virtually zero.
Canadian Licensed Producers exported 15,684 kilograms of dried flower for medical and scientific purposes in 2020, up 131% year-on-year. Cannabis oil exports expanded by 73% in 2020 to 22,342 liters.
The jump in exports in 2020 is due to factors both in Canada and around the globe. In Canada, more cultivators gained the European Union’s Good Manufacturing Practices (EU GMP) certification, allowing them to export to that continent. More than a dozen Canadian LPs now have EU GMP certified facilities.
Meanwhile, increased exports are also due to opening of more international markets and the expansion of existing ones. In 2019, 95% of the dried flower exported by Canadian LPs went to Germany. While Germany continues to increase its overall import level, it is now second to Israel, which in 2020 imported 10 tons of flower, or 63% of all Canadian exports by weight.
Over the next five years, we expect Canadian medical cannabis exports to grow as more countries legalize and import medical cannabis. While Canada will continue to be a major global supplier, over the longer term we expect lower-cost operations located in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean will take a larger share of the market.
Source: Canada Cannabis Spot Index, Cannabis Benchmarks
