Cannabis users usually scrutinize their bud — its size, its structure, its dankness — before grinding it up for consumption.
In Canada, though, a growing number of cannabis consumers have a different ritual: opening up a bag of pre-ground flowers that’s ready to roll into a joint or pack into a pipe or vaporizer.
The development of the ground-cannabis sector seems to be driven by milled marijuana shoppers who look for both convenience and value as key buying factors.
At the beginning of 2020, ground-flower sales were near-zero in the four Canadian provinces tracked by Seattle-based cannabis analytics firm Headset: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
By December 2022, ground flower comprised 7.3% of all flower sales in the four Headset-monitored provinces, which include Canada’s three biggest provincial cannabis markets.
Shred, a popular brand of ground cannabis, successfully launched its pre-ground milling offerings with deliberate blends of different cannabis cultivars. It has since branched out to include pre-rolled joints, edibles, and vapes. Occupying the no.2 spot is Aleafia Health with their Divvy brand while the British Columbia grower, Pure Sunfarms, held third place.
The price trajectory for milled cannabis mirrors the overall price compression trend in Canadian cannabis in recent years. In early 2020, according to Headset data, the average retail price of a gram of milled cannabis flower was about 7 Canadian dollars (roughly $5.25) per gram on an equivalized basis, which adjusts for different package sizes.
These days, pre-ground flower costs closer to CA$4 per gram, or approximately 25% less than whole flower on average in 2022 - positioning it as a value offering for consumers.
It’s a market segment that shouldn’t be ignored.