Michigan’s legal cannabis retail market is showing no signs of slowing down to start off its fourth year of adult-use sales.
Licensed dispensaries registered a record haul of $249.7 million in March. That’s nearly a quarter billion dollars in combined adult-use and medical cannabis sales, blowing away the previous best mark of $221.7 million from December 2022, according to the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA).
Through the first three months of 2023, Michigan retailers sold more than $673 million, representing a 46% increase from the first quarter of 2022 and a 6% increase from the fourth quarter of last year.
That continued growth comes despite the second-largest cannabis market in the U.S.—bested only by California—offering some of the lowest retail prices in the nation: An average ounce of dried flower was $86.87 at adult-use dispensaries in March, according to CRA. That average flower price is up slightly from Michigan’s all-time low of $80.16 in January 2023.
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Comparatively, Michigan’s average flower prices were $191 per ounce in March 2022 and $255 per ounce in March 2021.
So, how have statewide sales continued to grow as prices plummet? Demand.
Michigan dispensaries sold nearly 88,000 pounds of flower in March 2023, more than three times that of the 24,000 pounds sold in March 2022.
Representing the largest share of Michigan’s market, flower made up 49% of overall sales in March 2023, while vape cartridges represented 19% of sales, concentrates accounted for 14%, and infused edibles made up 11%.
In terms of pounds sold, flower demand increased 252% from March 2022 to March 2023, while vape cartridge demand rose 176%, concentrate demand was up 590%, and demand for edibles increased 82%.
To meet this consumer trend, Michigan’s licensed cultivators harvested more than 878,000 cannabis plants during the first three months of 2023, representing a 34% increase compared to the first quarter of 2022, according to CRA data.
As of March 31, Michigan’s business market included 879 adult-use cultivation licenses, according to CRA. As a significant portion of that market, 126 of the state’s largest operators held “excess grower” licenses allowing them to increase scale. There were 567 cultivation licenses and 77 excess grower licenses in the market last March.
And Michigan had 656 active adult-use retail licenses as of March 31, which is 178 more than a year ago, according to CRA.
On average, those 656 active retailers each sold more than $365,500 in adult-use cannabis products this March, while that piece of the overall pie equated to roughly $253,500 in adult-use sales per active retail license on average in March 2022.
