Cannabis sales through the province’s licensed cannabis retailers were up 22.2 per cent in the fourth quarter from Q4 in 2023.
Total retail cannabis sales for the 2024 fiscal year was up 23.9 per cent over 2023.
NLC CEO Bruce Keating says they’re pleased on gaining a greater share of the cannabis market with just over five years gone by since legalization.
According to the methodology NLC and other jurisdictions use, they estimate that the current cannabis market is 84 per cent legal.
There were high hopes that cannabis production would also prove to be a revenue generator, but Keating says those expectations have been tempered by lower demand, and some consolidations might be forthcoming.
NLC CEO Bruce Keating
“The industry is still experiencing more production capacity on a national basis than there is demand in the market.” He says there are about 700 licensed cannabis producers in the country, “but an awful lot of those are under real financial pressures. It’s just a function that there’s more supply in the market right now than there is demand.”
There are currently two production facilities in the province: Atlantic Cultivation on Kenmount Road in St. John’s and Oceanic ReLeaf in Burin, both of which Keating says “are well positioned to survive and to prosper as we…move ahead.”
Canopy Growth’s production facility in the capital city’s east end meanwhile, continues to sit idle, never having grown a single cannabis plant.
 "BCCI want Test specialists to play domestic cricket; Rohit, Virat, Bumrah to be exceptions")
