The Canada Cannabis Spot Index was assessed this week at C$5.73 per gram, down 0.7% from last week’s C$5.77 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,067 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 we examine household expenditure data issued by Statistics Canada on a quarterly basis.
As Cannabis Benchmarks covered previously, Q3 2020 was the first quarter in which the estimated household expenditure for legal recreational cannabis exceeded that spent in the illicit market. That trend continued in Q4 2020.
In Q4 2020, legal recreational cannabis expenditures grew 101% to C$918M, while illicit cannabis expenditures dropped by 20% to C$714M. Total expenditures on cannabis reached C$1.77B for the quarter, or C$19.2M per day. Interestingly, data released to date shows that increased legal cannabis sales have not negatively impacted sales of alcohol and tobacco.
In comparing Q4 2020 sales of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis to those from the same period in 2019, both alcohol and tobacco maintained their portions of combined sales for all of the aforementioned categories, at 51% and 37-38%, respectively.
Legal recreational cannabis saw its share of sales grow from 4% to 7% from Q4 2019 to Q4 2020 at the expense of illegal cannabis sales.
Source: Canada Cannabis Spot Index, Cannabis Benchmarks
