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Popularity of Cannabis Formats Evolving, Packaging Follows Suit

Dried flower is giving way to creams, gels, dried teas/powders and inhalers, products that doubled in growth in two years’ time. Packaging for cannabis is expanding to meet this growth.

Flexible Packaging for Infinite CBD Gummies
Flexible Packaging for Infinite CBD Gummies

According to PMMI Business Intelligence’s white paper, “Cannabis Market Update: Unique Packaging Challenges for THC and CBD Products,” cannabis trends are moving away from dried flowers and into concentrates, edibles, and a diverse variety of other products - opening the door for a wide variety of packaging formats and materials.

In the U.S. in 2017, dried flower represented 50% of the entire cannabis market; by 2019, this share had dropped to 36%. Conversely, during this same period concentrates expanded market share by 13% to 36%. Edibles also grew from 12% to 14%. The largest increase was the “Other” category of cannabis products, which includes formats such as creams, gels, dried teas/powders, and inhalers. This category more than doubled, from 15% in 2017 to 36% in 2019, due to the explosive growth of retail CBD, particularly creams, salves, and balms. The edibles segment of the cannabis market could see a similar boost in the future should the FDA declare CBD legal as a food and beverage additive.

The growth and variety of these cannabis formats has also expanded packaging options, since the type of packaging used is most heavily influenced by the format of the cannabis. There are a few basic styles that are preferred over others for some of the largest cannabis categories.

Dried Flower Packaging

Dried flower is most commonly placed by hand into a plastic jar with a child resistant lid, be it screw-top or push-top. The style and shape of these containers varies from state to state and from producer to producer, but they are most commonly made from HDPE. Premium brands of dried flower can also be found in glass jars, mylar bags with a child resistant resealable zipper closure, or tin cans. Premium-look glass jars are also commonly packaged within a paperboard box. Some brands are even using pre-decorated or etched jars and premium labels.

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