*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$5.72 per gram this week, down 0.8% from last week’s C$5.77 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,120 per pound at the current exchange rate.

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Last week, Statistics Canada released retail sales data for February 2021, along with some minor changes to sales figures going back to July 2020. There was nothing notable in the reissued figures. Nationwide legal cannabis sales reached C$262.9M in February.

January saw a small decline in daily sales. As we noted in our report from March 26, we attribute the drop to a decrease in spending after the holiday season. A similar phenomenon is common in established U.S. cannabis markets. February sales grew once again, reaching levels slightly shy of those posted for December. The chart below shows average daily sales each month by province. The growth in sales from January to February 2021 was C$0.38M per day.

Source: Cannabis Benchmarks

Looking at the month-on-month change in each province, we see that sales have started to plateau in most, with Ontario the exception. Ontario’s cannabis industry continues to see a growth trajectory as it plays a bit of catch-up in terms of the number of operational retailers in the province.