Alberta is rolling up the second-highest sales of legal cannabis in Canada, according to Statistics Canada, with a record-shattering $46.7 million in sales in June alone, overtaking B.C. and second only to Ontario.
The high sales reflect a trend across Canada which has seen marijuana sales rising month-over-month this year, and accelerating since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March.
Canadian legal cannabis retailers sold more than $201 million worth of cannabis in June, which is about 119 per cent more than the nearly $91.7 million in cannabis sales nationally in the same month a year ago. June sales were up 7.9 per cent from a month earlier.
Analysts say legal cannabis is now tracking to annual sales of about $2.2 billion in 2020, the second full year of legalization.
Ontario, with $48.8 million in sales in June, leads the country.
Alberta, however, has the highest number of legal cannabis stores in Canada. The 509 stores approved by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis are about half of all pot retail locations in the country, and nearly another 200 are pending in the province.
Alberta is now outselling British Columbia, which posted the fourth-highest sales in June, at $29.3 million, Statistics Canada data shows, down from No.2 in May.
But B.C. could be catching up: the province’s legal cannabis retailers generated almost seven times the $4.2 million in revenue that they posted in June, 2019.
B.C. has 264 provincial licences granted for retail cannabis stores.
