Jun 8, 2020
Ontario sells over 35 tonnes of legal pot in past year, OCS says
Ontario releases first detailed update on cannabis sales over fiscal 2019
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Ontario sold more than 35 tonnes of legal cannabis in the past year, according to the province's Crown corporation in charge of selling pot online and to the wholesale market.
The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) released its initial report detailing how the first full fiscal year of sales fared late Monday, showing exactly which brands and products sold well in Canada's most populous province and how sales helped take a significant chunk of sales away from the illicit market.
The OCS said in its report that its online store sold about 7.2 tonnes of legal pot while the 53 bricks-and-mortar licensed stores in the province sold 27.9 tonnes of cannabis from April 2019 to the end of March. More than $385 million worth of cannabis was sold during that period, according to OCS calculations, while the legal market now accounts for 19 per cent of the market.
"The numbers from our first full year of commercial operations show steady growth despite constrained supply that limited the ability of the Ontario marketplace to rapidly expand the number of access points as quickly as desired," OCS chief executive officer and president Cal Bricker said in the report.
"For the first six months, it was necessary for OCS wholesale operations to place caps on orders from our retail store partners in order to provide a fair and equitable distribution of available products."
The OCS also detailed how the first three months of "Cannabis 2.0" product sales - including infused edibles and vapes - fared, describing the initial rollout as "fairly narrow." The OCS added that it will likely take time for any trends to emerge. Vapes accounted for nearly $15 million in sales, while edibles such as chocolates and gummies racked up nearly $4 million in customer spending.
Only $410,000 worth of cannabis-infused beverages were sold in the province in the first three months of this year, the OCS said.
Dried flower products accounted from the bulk of sales in the province, accounting for $274 million in the past year. The OCS said Aurora Cannabis Inc. held the top two sales spots for dried flower in the province, while brands operated by Redecan, Organigram Holdings Inc., Village Farms International Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp. rounded out the top five sellers in that category.
The average price of cannabis sold on the OCS web site was $8.56 per gram, slightly above the $8.23 a gram sourced in the illicit market, according to estimates the Crown corporation obtained via Weedmaps.
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