Supply-demand imbalance grows for Canadian cannabis edibles

Makers of edible cannabis products in Canada continue to stock more goods than they’re able to sell, the latest data from Canada’s cannabis regulator shows.

In August, federal license holders, provincial distributors and retailers held almost 10 million packaged units of cannabis edibles in stock, including beverages.

That compares with sales that month of roughly 1.42 million units in medical and nonmedical channels, per the Health Canada data.

The inventory growth is entirely attributable to producers.

Federal license holders held 6.6 million units of edible cannabis products in August, up from 5.2 million units in July.

At the same time, retailers and provincial distributors drew down their aggregate inventory, even as the number of retail points of sale expanded.

Provincial distributors and retailers held roughly 3.1 million edibles products in August, down from 3.2 million the previous month.

The inventory build comes as sales growth steadily falls.

The 1.42 million units sold in August was 6.8% higher than July’s reported sales – about a third of the growth for the June-July period.

August sales growth of edibles cannabis products was the lowest since the products started hitting the market in late 2019.

On a dollar basis, sales grew in several of Canada’s key markets, according to data from Seattle-based cannabis market intelligence firm Headset.

For August, Headset’s data shows edibles sales reaching 5 million Canadian dollars ($3.8 million) in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.

That’s up from CA$4.7 million in July.

The Ontario data excludes sales through government-run online monopoly Ontario Cannabis Store.

Sales of cannabis extracts such as vape pens, hash and softgels barely rose from July to August on a packaged unit basis, the Health Canada data shows.

About 1.4 million units of extracts were sold in August, while inventory exceeded 10 million units.

Across Canada, sales of all legal adult-use cannabis products grew by 8% from July to August, reaching a monthly total of CA$251.7 million.

Matt Lamers is Marijuana Business Daily’s international editor, based near Toronto. He can be reached at mattl@mjbizdaily.com.