*The provincial excise taxes vary. Cannabis Benchmarks estimates the population weighted average excise tax for Canada.
**CCSI is inclusive of the estimated Federal & Provincial cannabis excise taxes..
The CCSI was assessed at C$5.16 per gram this week, up 0.6% from last week’s C$5.13 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$1,830 per pound at the current exchange rate.
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Statistics Canada recently released retail sales data for February 2022, showing nationwide legal cannabis sales dropping from the previous month due to fewer total days. Sales in February slid to C$336.4M but increased on a daily basis. From January to February daily sales grew from an average of C$11.2M per day to C$12.0M per day, or a 7.5% increase. After relatively flat daily sales over the past six months, average daily sales grew to over C$12M per day for the first time.
Another interesting aspect of this month’s data was the revisions. For 2021, total sales were revised down by C$62.6M. While we are uncertain of the exact reason for the restatement, Ontario made up the majority of the revision, with annual sales revised down by 4%, or C$60.6 to C$1.38B. The table below shows the monthly sales change by province.
After the revisions, Canadian recreational cannabis sales totaled C$3.83B for 2021. In light of the restatement, stagnant sales in the back half of 2021, and lower recreational cannabis prices, we have lowered our projection of total recreational cannabis sales for 2022 to C$4.3B.