HIGHLIGHTS
- Global legal pot market pegged at US$166-billion by 2025, at 77 per cent of total sales
- THC products to add “new dimension of social lubrication,” Euromonitor says
- Cannabis industry yet to scratch surface of CBD product potential
Global CBD packaged food sales are on track to double in the next two years with vitamin and dietary supplements to become the biggest over-the-counter cannabis segment by 2025, when the legal market is expected to make up three-quarters of total marijuana sales, Euromonitor International forecast in its first white paper on the new industry.
The global cannabis industry is currently valued at US$150-billion, including both legal and illegal markets. The legal market is expected to reach US$166-billion by 2025, or 77 per cent of total cannabis sales, Euromonitor said.
To get there, cannabis brands will focus on sensorial and mood-enhancing attributes over the next decade, drastically changing products containing CBD while those infused with THC will add “a new dimension of social lubrication beyond medical applications,” the report said.
Leading this will be CBD- and THC-based vitamins and dietary supplements, which Euromonitor forecasts will make up 2 per cent of that segment’s total value sales by 2025, followed by topical analgesics, sleeping aids and sports nutrition, Euromonitor stated.
“Though CBD is already in demand, we haven’t scratched the surface of potential applications for the ingredient. I expect engagement to only deepen once norms and regulations finally catch up,” said Matt Oster, industry manager of Consumer Health for Euromonitor.
Euromonitor International is a global market research company that provides industry and consumer insight and forecasts around the world.
In additional to legal medical marijuana use in several countries and 33 U.S. states, Euromonitor expects recreational pot will be legalized in the United States within the next 10 years.
“The pace of legalization means that consumers will be able to use cannabis products in 2030 for their daily needs,” the report said.
Global CBD-packaged food sales will double over the next two years as consumer awareness about the cannabinoid’s benefits grows and as THC products become more mainstream, meaning that outcome-based products containing parts of cannabis will dominate the market and blur the boundaries between food and consumer health.
“Similar to the way plant-based disrupted the entire packaged food industry, cannabis is expected to bring a brand new edge to mindful consumption,” said Pinar Hosfaci, packaged food industry manager for Euromonitor.
Also feeding cannabis sales is the falling demand for sugary drinks and rising popularity in low- and non-alcoholic beverages, making way for cannabis drinks to fit into social settings.
“Cannabis will ultimately culminate a global paradigm shift that will radically disrupt traditionalist industries such as alcoholic drinks,” said Spiros Malandrakis, alcoholic drinks industry manager for Euromonitor.
“Reshaping millennia-old drinking rituals and providing an alternative to social lubrication occasions, cannabis should be either embraced as a symbiotic opportunity or faced as a potentially detrimental antagonist for an alcohol industry already on the defensive.”
Tobacco manufacturers are poised to become cannabis brand owners or producers of consumption methods due to shifting consumer preferences that have led some companies to invest in medical cannabis producers and cannabis consumption device makers.