The CCSI was assessed at C$5.82 per gram this week, down 0.8% from last week’s C$5.86 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,101 per pound at the current exchange rate.
Each week, Business of Cannabis delivers a series of insights from our partners at Cannabis Benchmarks®.
Canadian legal cannabis sales reached C$282.8M in January 2021, according to Statistics Canada, down from C$299.7M in December 2020.
While the January decline is a bit unexpected considering the strong upward trend in sales growth in 2020, we do not see it as the start of a sustained slowdown, but rather a decrease in spending after the holiday season.
We believe that with cannabis legal and accessible in Canada, its purchasing and use mimicked the increase in alcohol consumption that has been documented in the U.S. and Canada during the end-of-year holidays, which is typically followed by a cessation of purchasing at the beginning of the subsequent year.
Data from the U.S. supports this interpretation, as monthly sales trends in state-legal cannabis markets have consistently shown that a decrease in January sales in any given year is not atypical.
Source: Canada Cannabis Spot Index, Cannabis Benchmarks