New Health Canada market data for October 2022 to December 2022 shows a continued increase in cannabis inventory and sales across Canada, even as the amount of production space and number of employees at production facilities starts to decline.
Total Cannabis Sales
Total medical and non-medical cannabis sales were up 12% from last quarter with 19,569,277 units sold. Dried cannabis has consistently dominated medical and non-medical sales followed by edible cannabis and cannabis extracts. The non-medical sales breakdown by product type is shown in Figure One.
Non-Medical Cannabis Sales
Dried cannabis packaged sales have held relatively steady in the last six months of 2022 as shown in Table One with an increase of 11.76% from January to December.
Edibles, extracts, and topicals saw more notable increases. Edible sales grew throughout the year and jumped in late 2022, up 37.9% from January. Extract sales were up 66.43% from January to December.
Topical sales steadily increased throughout the year with a sudden jump in December. Sales were up 71% from January to December.
Table One: Non-Medical Cannabis Sales (Packaged Units)
| Year-Month | Dried Cannabis | Edible Cannabis | Cannabis Extracts | Cannabis Topicals |
| 2022-12 | 9,742,791 | 4,455,645 | 4,273,642 | 56,901 |
| 2022-11 | 8,890,693 | 3,442,539 | 3,563,117 | 37,301 |
| 2022-10 | 9,642,431 | 3,720,904 | 3,594,056 | 36,391 |
| 2022-09 | 9,597,809 | 3,665,372 | 3,378,503 | 33,437 |
| 2022-08 | 9,865,782 | 3,748,942 | 3,284,090 | 40,509 |
| 2022-07 | 9,898,767 | 3,889,390 | 3,265,371 | 41,906 |
| 2022-06 | 9,511,791 | 3,607,536 | 3,056,316 | 44,270 |
| 2022-05 | 9,254,579 | 3,430,172 | 2,876,505 | 37,383 |
| 2022-04 | 9,171,513 | 3,600,659 | 2,885,436 | 36,216 |
| 2022-03 | 8,990,972 | 3,390,819 | 2,774,329 | 35,227 |
| 2022-02 | 7,975,499 | 3,110,271 | 2,442,750 | 34,036 |
| 2022-01 | 8,717,718 | 3,231,142 | 2,567,891 | 33,269 |
| Annual Change | 11.76% | 37.90% | 66.43% | 71.03% |
Cannabis Inventory
Total packaged inventory held by cultivators, processors, distributors, and retailers was up 6% from last quarter with 75,948,683 packaged units held. The majority of inventory is dried cannabis. The inventory breakdown by product type is shown in Figure Two.
Production Space
Despite the increase in inventory and sales, production space and the number of employees at production facilities saw slow declines in 2022.
From October to December 2022, there were 1,595,724 m2 of indoor licensed growing area, 378,863 m2 of processing area, and 595 hectares of outdoor growing area. Production space seems to be levelling out and has decreased across all categories in 2022, as shown in Table Two.
Table Two: Licensed Area
| Year-Month | Indoor growing area (m2) | Processing area (m2) | Total building area (m2) | Outdoor growing area (hectares) |
| 2022-12 | 1,595,742 | 378,863 | 4,427,069 | 595 |
| 2022-11 | 1,600,041 | 378,420 | 4,452,950 | 595 |
| 2022-10 | 1,584,199 | 374,031 | 4,418,982 | 594 |
| 2022-09 | 1,658,180 | 418,381 | 4,794,641 | 531 |
| 2022-08 | 1,710,100 | 421,489 | 4,877,672 | 533 |
| 2022-07 | 1,699,653 | 436,220 | 4,927,444 | 530 |
| 2022-06 | 1,688,294 | 425,567 | 4,874,453 | 543 |
| 2022-05 | 1,683,023 | 423,771 | 4,863,636 | 550 |
| 2022-04 | 1,680,173 | 423,236 | 4,864,251 | 642 |
| 2022-03 | 1,673,356 | 422,946 | 4,883,746 | 692 |
| 2022-02 | 1,677,723 | 424,319 | 4,886,097 | 685 |
| 2022-01 | 1,674,950 | 422,316 | 4,887,406 | 685 |
| Annual Change | -4.73% | -10.29% | -9.42% | -13.14% |
Production Facility Employees
The number of employees at federally licensed production facilities slowly dropped throughout 2022 as shown in Table Three, down 2.20% from January to December.
Table Three: Estimated Employment on Federally Licensed Sites
| Year-Month | Low estimate | High estimate |
| 2022-12 | 12,576 | 16,812 |
| 2022-11 | 12,540 | 16,642 |
| 2022-10 | 12,427 | 16,639 |
| 2022-09 | 12,991 | 16,880 |
| 2022-08 | 13,236 | 17,356 |
| 2022-07 | 13,169 | 17,131 |
| 2022-06 | 13,045 | 17,056 |
| 2022-05 | 12,993 | 16,986 |
| 2022-04 | 12,997 | 17,103 |
| 2022-03 | 12,923 | 17,254 |
| 2022-02 | 12,920 | 17,274 |
| 2022-01 | 12,859 | 17,183 |
| Annual Change | -2.20% | -2.16% |