Canada: 908 million $ of cannabis purchased since legalization one year ago

Canadians spent an estimated $908 million (€620 million) on non-medical cannabis, or 31$ per adult Canadian, in the first year of legalization, according to the latest figures. published by Statistics Canada.

Ontario has the highest amount of retail sales of cannabis, with Ontarians purchasing $217 million since the beginning of the year. legalization on october 17, 2018. In terms of per capita purchases, Canada's most populous province bought the second-lowest amount of cannabis, with only 15$ per capita in the first year. Ontario is followed by Alberta with $195.7 million.

Per capita cannabis sales in British Columbia (10$) were the lowest in Canada, totaling $50 million. At the other end of the scale, the Yukon set a record at 103$ per capita. Nunavut who have not deployed physical stores, No statistics are available for the territory.

A chaotic first year

The opening of legal sales was not without incident. Initial demand was largely under-anticipated, or supply completely undersized, as the case may be. major stock-outs during the first few weeks. Access to cannabis nevertheless expanded as the year progressed. The number of stores rose from 217 in March to 407 in July.

Alberta boasts the largest number of stores (176), while British Columbia is the second-biggest province, with 57 dispensaries.

19% of Canadians lived within 3 kilometers of a cannabis store in July 2019. 30% would be 5 kilometers away and 45% 10 kilometers, leaving the majority of Canadians without a store nearby.

The increase in the number of physical stores was accompanied by a fall in online sales, from 43.4% in October 2018 to 5.9% in September 2019.

«While online retailing ensures access to cannabis products for all Canadians, regardless of proximity to a physical store, accessibility continues to increase as stores open across the country,» concludes the Statistics Canada report. «The retail cannabis market will continue to evolve as jurisdictions adapt their regulatory approaches, supply chains develop and the cannabis products offered diversify.»

Overestimated forecasts

Sales figures are well below pre-legalization forecasts. Deloitte estimated that the Canadian legal cannabis industry could reach $4.34 billion in the first year of legalization, and that the majority of purchases would be made through the legal market rather than illicit sources.

Yet the illicit market represents still between 70 and 80% of all cannabis sales during the first year of legalization, due to lack of access to sales outlets, lower-quality products and legal prices well above the black market.