Canada continues to dominate the legal global medical cannabis export sector, with Canadian cannabis companies exporting a reported 218 million Canadian dollars ($189 million) worth of medical cannabis products to other nations in fiscal year 2023/2024.
“That’s an increase of more than 36% from the previous year’s exports of CA$160 million.” stated MJBiz Daily in its initial reporting. MJBiz Daily reports that in previous fiscal years, Canada exported the following amounts of legal medical cannabis products:
- CA$8 million in 2019-20
- CA$39 million in 2020-21
- CA$107 million in 2021-22
Canada legalized cannabis for adult-use in 2018, becoming just the second nation to ever pass a national adult-use measure. The only other nation to pass a national legalization measure prior to Canada was Uruguay. Other countries have entered the global cannabis export industry, however, Canada still remains a global leader.
The global legal medical cannabis market is projected to reach $82.5 billion by 2030 according to a new report by Research and Markets. The legal medical cannabis market was worth an estimated $32.3 billion in 2023 according to the report.
“Extract Form Marijuana, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is expected to record 14.6% CAGR and reach US$54.2 Billion by the end of the analysis period. Growth in the Dried Flower Marijuana segment is estimated at 13.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period.” Research and Markets stated in a press release.
According to an analysis by New Frontier Data, cannabis consumers around the globe “spent an estimated $415 billion on high-THC cannabis in 2020” and that figure is expected to increase to to $496 billion by 2025.
“Much of the world has not yet legalized cannabis, and nearly all the demand resides in illicit or unregulated markets. In 2020, 94% of high-THC cannabis spend was in unregulated channels.” New Frontier Data states.
New Frontier Data has determined that sales of high-THC cannabis products through legal regulated outlets totaled $23.7 billion in 2020 and that legal sales are projected to reach $51 billion by 2025. New Frontier Data estimates that legal cannabis sales of adult-use cannabis “are projected to be double those of legal medical sales by 2025, despite the higher number of medical markets globally.”