Cannabis sales increased from 2023 while alcohol sales declined somewhat, according to the newest figures shared by Statistics Canada.
Although cannabis sales have been somewhat cooling from the exponential growth seen in the first few years of legalization, sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets increased 11.6% or $500 million from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023.
This is equivalent to $163 per person of legal age to consume cannabis.
Meanwhile, alcohol sales, while still far higher overall than cannabis sales at $26.2 billion, saw historic declines in sales, down 0.1% in 2023/2024 from fiscal year 2022/2023.
The decrease in alcohol sales occurred despite a 2.5% increase in the price of alcoholic beverages in stores from March 2023 to March 2024. Conversely, the 11.6% year-over-year increase in cannabis sales came when cannabis prices declined 2.8% (March 2023 to March 2024).
Inhaled cannabis extracts continued to be the fastest-growing product category in 2023/2024, up 31.4% year-over-year after growing 59.% the previous fiscal year. This category, which includes not only extracts like hash, shatter, or live rosin, but also vape pens and infused pre-rolls, was the most significant contributor to the increase in cannabis sales in 2023/2024, accounting for 67.5% of the $500 million overall increase.
Yukon had the highest sales per person of legal age to consume cannabis at $356 a person, while Quebec had the lowest at $96. Quebec does not allow sales of cannabis extracts unless they have less than 30% THC, and has significant restrictions on cannabis edibles. Quebec has also banned the sale of cannabis topicals, although this is a very small product category overall.
Cannabis vapes are said to be coming to Quebec later this year.
Retailers that Stratcann spoke with recently shared similar insights into current sales trends. While cannabis flower, including pre-rolls, continues to dominate sales, infused pre-rolls and vapes, especially all-in-one or disposable vapes, continue to eat into their market share.
British Columbia, one of the few provinces to release quarterly wholesale sales reports for cannabis products, noted that inhalable extracts sales for the last three months of 2024 were $55.4 million, while cannabis flower and pre-rolls were $76.1 million – $44.2 million in dried flower, and $31.9 million in pre-rolls.
Disposable vape pen sales in that province increased by a whopping 193.9% year-over-year and 92.6% in terms of units sold (258,418 units sold), continuing an ongoing trend. Sales of infused pre-rolls increased by 19.3%. Inhalable extract sales increased by 15.7% year-over-year, and units sold increased by 13.8%. Dried flower sales increased by just 0.8%, while units sold decreased by 1.7%.
Ottawa and several provinces have made recent moves to make intra-provincial alcohol sales direct to consumers, but cannabis continues to be excluded from such conversations despite being a greater contributor to Canada’s GDP than many aspects of the alcohol industry.