The latest market projection predicts that marijuana-infused edibles will top $17.27 billion in sales within the next two years.
The report comes from the global marketing analysis firm Technavio. Technavio has closely followed all cannabis-related developments in the business world, accurately predicting today’s marijuana market value of about $16 billion — back in 2015. Separate analyses from another analytics firm, New Frontier Data, also predicted a $16 billion milestone for the weed industry in 2019.
For comparison, the US porn industry is valued between $6 to $15 billion, by conservative estimates.
“The cannabis industry has emerged as [a] lucrative business segment with immense potential for market growth and is attracting many new vendors and large investors,” Technavio wrote in its new report. “Vendors are witnessing an increase in the growth opportunities in businesses involving cannabis-infused edible products such as brownies, ice creams, and chocolates. Thus, the growing social acceptance of cannabis is expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.”
While Technavio attributes its prediction to a “growing social acceptance” for weed, there’s a little more to it than that. For starters, the entire nation of Canada, which federally legalized adult-use marijuana last year, will begin selling cannabis-infused edibles (and extracts, and vape pens) sometime within the next month. That means the Canadian cannabis edibles industry will soon tap into a market potential of 2 to 4 million customers.
In addition to Canada’s burgeoning marijuana market, the US has also made major moves affecting the cannabis edibles industry. Late last year, the US government federally legalized hemp, the nation’s primary source of CBD. Now that CBD is legal across America, startups and long-established corporations plan to infuse food products with CBD to capitalize on the compound’s purported health, wellness, and medicinal properties.
And on top of Canada and the US’s embrace of cannabis products, there may be new countries joining the legalization fold by 2021. For instance, New Zealand, a nation with over 4 million citizens, will vote on a legalization bill in November 2020. Mexico already technically legalized weed after a string of Supreme Court decisions, and may have a regulated sales system finalized by early next year.
A handful of European and African countries may legalize in the next couple of years, as well. The EU member nation Luxembourg has already legalized marijuana, but it will be another two to three years before rules for regulated sales are implemented.
Besides all the new countries about to come online, weed-infused edible sales have spiked slightly due to the vaping illness crisis. Cannabis consumers often turn to edibles when they want to avoid any potential issues related to smoking, such as strong odors and lung complications.
Follow Randy Robinson on Twitter
