Canada sold $908 million of legal cannabis in one year
Statistics Canada is reporting nearly $1 billion in non-medical cannabis sales across the country in the first year of legalization in its latest report.
The report, called The Retail Cannabis Market in Canada: A Portrait of the First Year, summarized sales over Canada’s first year of cannabis legalization.
It shows the industry made $908 million total in online and retail sales in the first year, or $24 per capita.
Ontario led all provinces in sales with $217 million between Oct. 2018 and Sept. 2019, followed by Alberta with $196 million and Quebec with $195 million. No other province reached above $100 million in sales.
British Columbia, one of the four most populous provinces, reported relatively low sales given its number of cannabis stores at $50 million. The province also had the lowest sales per capita in the country at $10.
StatsCan says sales differences can be explained due to how each provincial government rolled out the stores over the year, as well as other factors, such as competition from the illicit market.
As more retail stores have opened, online sales have fallen. They’ve gone down from 43.4% of all sales in October 2018 to 5.9% in September 2019. Online sales have made up 13.3% of total sales since legalization.
“While online cannabis retail ensures access to all Canadians regardless of proximity to a physical store, accessibility continues to improve as more stores open across the country,” StatsCan said.
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