Cumulative annual Canada legal cannabis sales

The Canada Cannabis Spot Index was assessed at C$5.12 per gram this week, down 0.7% from last week’s C$5.15 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$1,844 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 Benchmark provides an update on their cannabis retail sales estimate for the remainder of this year and next year. Over the past three years, the Canadian cannabis industry saw sales grow each month at a similar pace as the number of new retail outlets opening across the country.

At the end of September, Canada crossed the milestone of 2,500 stores. Cannabis Benchmarks recently forecast that monthly retail sales across Canada reached C$333 as of September 2021.

For the remainder of 2021 and through 2022, Cannabis Benchmarks forecast that sales growth will continue as provinces such as Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec make legal cannabis more accessible by adding more retail stores.

In 2022, however, Cannabis Benchmarks expects growth to moderate as certain highly populated pockets of Canada become saturated with cannabis stores, leading to lower sales per store and a continued downtrend in retail prices across the provinces.

Additionally, the conversion rate of buyers from the illicit market has slowed as some buyers remain committed to their informal sales channels.

Overall, Cannabis Benchmarks sees sales climbing to C$383M by December 2022, a 12% increase to July 2020, which is the last monthly figure published by Statistics Canada.

On a cumulative basis, 2022 sales are expected to grow to C$4.34B which is a 13% increase over our estimated total for 2021.

Source: Canada Cannabis Spot Index, Cannabis Benchmarks

See previous weekly updates from Cannabis Benchmarks:

• Understanding medical versus recreational sales right now
• A look at daily cannabis sales by Province
• How to view dry cannabis sales across Canada
• A look at percentage of legal versus illicit cannabis sales
• A look at the pace of growth for cannabis retail
• A look at monthly cannabis sales in Ontario
• What is the optimal number of cannabis stores in Canada?
• How to compare daily cannabis retail sales by Province
• Understanding the impact of cannabis on alcohol sales in Canada
• A look at cannabis retail store count by Province
• A look at cannabis user statistics in Canada