New Analytics Show Cannabis Flower Is Becoming More Affordable In Legal States

U.S. cannabis customers last year continued to buy flower more than any other marijuana product, and the prices they paid for the plant at legal dispensaries also became slightly more affordable.

That’s according to a new report from Headset, a Seattle-based industry data and market intelligence firm that specializes in consumer insights, purchasing behaviors and retail trends. Headset found that flower accounted for 40 percent of all cannabis products bought in 2021.

“Flower market share has been dropping steadily over the past two years,” Headset analyst Cassie Thielen wrote in the report. “It’s still the highest-revenue category in both the U.S. and Canada, but is less significant than ever before.”

The report, released Monday, found that flower is becoming more affordable in some of the largest adult-use states, including California, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The price per gram in those states fell an average of 14 percent last year, from $6.78 at the beginning of 2021 to $5.82 at the end of the year.

In the six U.S. states for which Headset compiles data, flower sales jumped to $5.49 billion in 2021, up from $4.92 billion in 2020. While flower remained the most popular product, it did lose some of its market share to pre-rolls and edibles (especially beverages), which increased 38.9 percent and 20.4 percent across Headset’s six tracked markets. Sales across the industry as a whole increased about 18 percent, while flower sales jumped just 11.5 percent.

Consumers are also beginning to exercise more discretion when shopping for the plant: instead of seeking flower with the highest THC counts, a larger percentage of buyers are now considering other terpenes and cannabinoids.

The report, which tracks the most mature U.S. legal cannabis markets, found that consumers are also starting to differentiate products based on quality. Besides analyzing terpene and cannabinoid content, more customers now ask about the conditions of how the plant was grown – whether indoor or outdoor – as well as the type of soil and fertilizers used on it.

High-THC, organic and indoor-grown flower remains the most popular among consumers, and can also fetch the highest prices. Prices in that category of cannabis also tend to remain the most stable, according to the report, while the cost of lower-end cannabis flower tends to be more volatile.