CCSI image 1 2022-02-25

*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$5.20 per gram this week, up 0.6% from last week’s C$5.17 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$1,848 per pound at the current exchange rate.

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Statistics Canada recently released retail sales data for December 2021, showing nationwide legal cannabis sales once again grew during the holiday month. Sales in December grew to C$382.4M. The month-on-month increase of C$31M or 8.5% led to the highest monthly sales since legalization.

In 2021, we saw a monthly increase in sales almost every month, as cannabis products became more accessible and acceptable, as well as more inexpensive. Specifically looking at December, we typically see a big boost in sales during this holiday month. In December 2020, we observed sales jump by C$38M from the previous month, which is comparable to this past December.

This latest report also gives us a complete view of 2021 sales, which totaled C$3.92B. This was a C$1.3B or 50% increase year-on-year. We expect 2022 will exceed last year’s sales as more stores are rolled out across key provinces, and lower price points and product variety continue to attract illicit market consumers to the legal markets. Based on the latest report, the annual sales run rate for 2022 is expected to hit at least C$4.5B.