Alberta Province mini cannabis market report

Executive Summary

This report examines the trends we see in the Alberta province, Canada, offering insights into its overall cannabis market. The report covers market size, a breakdown of the categories market share, and a deep dive into the Flower category covering its sales share over time, the average price per gram, as it compares to other US recreational markets, and the distribution of sales per package size. It will be useful to anyone looking to enter or grow within the Alberta market, as well as to retailers and members of the media interested in better understanding what are the trends in Alberta.

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Methodology

The data below is from Headset Insights in the Canadian Province of Alberta.  For Alberta Insights Headset currently has data for March through June of 2019.  We will continue to add new months of Insights as more data becomes available in this rapidly changing market.

Sale totals are Adult Use recreational sales after discounts and before taxes and exclude any medical sales.

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Alberta Category Market Share (March - May 2019)

Flower dominates the marketplace in Alberta, though this is likely due to limit format availability at the present time.  Pre-Rolls play a much larger role in the Canadian Adult Use cannabis space than in the US.  In US states Pre-Rolls are only around 10% of the marketplace.  We expect the market share of categories to drastically shift later this year when new formats are introduced to the Canadian marketplace.  Oils are unique to the Canadian market and defined as ‘Cannabis extract dissolved in oil’ by Health Canada.  For context, the total Adult Use cannabis market in Alberta in May, 2019 was $17.5M CAD. 

Flower Market Share Over Time

Lessons learned from US Adult Use markets show us that Flower’s market share generally starts high and tapers off as more products become available in the market. We expect AB to benzo exception to this trend, especially when new formats become legal at the end of the year. California is a bit unique in the US where the inhalable space is more heavily dominated by Vapor Pens.

Flower Sales by Package Size

Flower sales are primarily dominated by 1 gram and 3.5 gram (or eighths) packages. In terms of total units sold we see that 1 gram packages are about one-third of the units sold in the market. Other sizes are generally larger package size (15 grams or 30 grams). This is different from the US where larger sizes are generally sold in 14 gram or 28 gram (ounce) packages.

Flower Average Price Per Gram

Prices per gram of cannabis in AB are similar to those we see in California when adjusted for exchange rate (which is currently $1.33 CAD per $1.00 USD as of August 2019). Higher prices come as no surprise given the reports of supply issues we have heard of in Canada. Most markets in the US saw price compression happen relatively quickly after the Adult Use markets legalized and we expect this will begin to happen in Canada by 2020.

About Headset

Headset is a consumer data analytics platform that provides market intelligence for the cannabis industry. Our extensive Market Reports deep-dive into specific categories and aspects of the industry to help businesses better monitor the market and perform exhaustive category analysis. Reports are generated via aggregate, real-time transaction data to get a unique and thorough analysis of what’s happening in the cannabis industry as the data becomes available. Headset offers three distinct products that help retailers, dispensaries, brands, product manufacturers, distributors, and investors move ahead in the industry