2.6 billion dollars in legal cannabis sales across Canada during a time when the country is in lock-down is astonishing. In December alone, the country sold 298.4 million worth of cannabis. The only months where sales decline were November, April, and February.

As of December 2020, 1,429 retail stores are operating in Canada. The average monthly sales per store are just under $210,000.

Analysts believe the roll-out of cannabis 2.0 products is the reason for the acceleration we see.

Cannabis products like edibles, tinctures, and concentrates became legal in early 2020.

Total Canada Cannabis Sales

Total sales in the country were $2,623,942,000. Aside from Saskatchewan, which saw a dip of 14%, all provinces saw an increase in sales during the month of December.

The largest cannabis markets account for over 84% of Canada’s legal recreational cannabis sales.

Data from Stats Canada shows that edible cannabis represents 20% of the total sales with roughly 2.3 packaged units sold.

Unpackaged cannabis plants that federal license holders hold came in at 5.1 million in December 2020.

Let’s look at sales by the province to get a better understanding of month-to-month growth.

Find more statistics at Statista

Total Sales By Province

When it comes to the territories, the Yukon cannabis sales totalled $736,000 and North West Territories bringing in a total of $896,000.

Unfortunately, there is no sales data released for Nunavut at this time.

All provinces in Canada saw a sales increase. Here is the provincial sales total in the order of highest to lowest.

Ontario: 94.6 million
Alberta: 63.8 million
Quebec: 50.8 million
British Columbia: 42.5 million

December 2020 was a good month for all provinces. The remaining six provides saw an increase of:

Saskatchewan: 11.8 million
Manitoba: 11.1 million
Nova Scotia: 8.2 million
New Brunswick: 6.8 million
Labrador & Newfoundland: 5.4 million
Prince Edward Island: 1.8 million

Canada’s Cannabis Products Data

In December 2020, a total of 11,250,949 packaged units of recreational and medical cannabis were sold across Canada.

Dried flower (cannabis) made up 63% of total sales, which works out to 2,298,157 units sold.

Across the country, distributors and retailers held 45% of packaged cannabis inventory.

That means 56,566,009 packaged cannabis products were held in inventory by retailers, processors, cultivators, and distributors.

According to Stats Canada’s Cannabis Market data, December 2020 reported 628 hectares of cannabis growing outdoors.

Aside from flowering cannabis plants which is calculated by unpackaged inventory by Statistics Canada, here are the December 2020 monthly total sales (non-medical and medical) for each cannabis category:

Flowering Cannabis Plants: 2,532,483
Dried Flower: 7,133,507
Cannabis Extracts: 1,796,841
Cannabis Edibles: 2,298,157
Cannabis Topicals: 17,901
Cannabis Seeds: 2,629

Canadian Cannabis Sales: Final Thoughts

Hindsight may be 20/20, but the forecast for cannabis sales was off target.

The forecast was that Canadian cannabis retail sales would reach between 3.3 billion and 3.5 billion.

Clearly, COVID-19 impacted every economy globally.

COVID lockdowns have played a critical role in growth for every industry- not just cannabis.

Slow-paced growth can be expected for all cannabis-related industries.

We are also seeing companies buying up other companies.

According to Craig Wiggins, the managing director of The Cannalysts Inc., there’s going to be a knife fight in the industry.

Hexo bought Zenabis. Companies aren’t buying for cultivation purposes.

They are buying them for sales.

The future of the cannabis market looks bright regardless of lockdowns.

We see the legal recreational market sell more cannabis than the legacy market (illicit market).

What are your predictions on Canadian cannabis sales in 2021?

We want to hear from you. Leave a comment below or reach out on our social channels. And remember, stay lifted!

About the author: Heather Burton

Heather lives with her husband and two children in beautiful British Columbia. Her passion has always been to enhance the lives of others by helping them reach their business goals.

Content management is her specialty, and writing is what she does best. Working specifically in the cannabis market, Heather strives to help dispensaries, patients, doctors, manufacturers and recreational users by giving them the voice they need. When she is not writing, you can find her anywhere outdoors and away from the screen.