infused beverages. This creates substantial opportunity for beverage brands to take advantage of many different need states and occasions. Product Assortment & Availability Look for savvy beverage brands to take advantage of the new demand for edible products, as well as leveraging their partnerships with large manufacturers on both sides of the US-Canadian border. BDSA anticipates continued growth of the edibles market in Canada with increased assortment and availability, and beverages will be a substantial player. By 2025, BDSA forecasts the size of the Canadian edibles market to be 3-times what it is today, representing approximately 8% of total dollar sales. It is too early to tell exactly what portion beverages will own of this share in 2025, but the past 12 months (especially the past three months) show the beginnings of a fun and dynamic category to watch. Whether it be time to market, consumer/product fit, dosage, flavours, mg content, big beverage players, or all of the above, the Canadian cannabis-infused beverage market is just getting started. Brendan Chesebro is an experienced analyst with industry-leader BDSA, delivering actionable insights on the world’s rapidly developing cannabis markets. Kelly Nielsen leads BDSA’s Insights & Analytics, and brings 13+ years of experience consulting on consumer goods, beverages, and most recently cannabis. Lower-Dose Products Popular In the US and Canada, beverages are proving to be well suited as a lower-dose product, which is notable as Canada’s regulations mandate that edible products contain no more than 10 mg of THC per package. Even in California, where state regulations limit THC to 100 mg per package for most edible products, beverages with 10 mg THC or less made up +50% of unit sales in 2020. By contrast, candy products with 10 mg THC or less represented only ~10% of unit sales in California this year. This dynamic of beverages performing well as lower-dose products may play even stronger in Canada, given Canadian consumer preferences for THC dosage. While about 40% of cannabis consumers in US adult-use legal states report their ideal THC dosage is 10 mg or less, about 50% of Canadian cannabis consumers are looking for lower dosages. As edibles increase in availability in Canada, this preference for lower-THC products could further drive the strong position beverages is starting to carve out in the Canadian market. CANNABIS RETAILER 29
Cannabis Retailer January/February 2021: Page 29
