It was a sluggish start of the year for Canada's cannabis market as sales fell by more than five per cent in January from the prior month, according to Statistics Canada. 
 
Canada's pot sector sold $282.8 million of cannabis products in January, a 5.6 per cent decline from the December high of $298.4 million, StatsCan said Friday. Sales were down by about 2.5 per cent on a per-day basis, the data showed. Overall retail sales in Canada were down 1.1 per cent in January. 

The sales figures reveal that declines were seen in every province and territory tracked by StatsCan, although it wasn't much of a surprise to some industry observers. Retail sales in January typically experience a decline from the prior month as consumers cool their spending following the busy holiday season. However, cannabis stores across the country, including in Ontario - Canada's largest cannabis market - also operated under COVID-19 lockdowns, which led to some downward pressure on sales. 
 
The data also points to a potentially soft first quarter for Canada's cannabis industry, according to several analysts who also track other cannabis data sets such as Hifyre and Headset. The Hifyre data, for example, points to another down month in February sales. 
 
Cantor Fitzgerald Analyst Pablo Zuanic doesn't think the slow quarter here in Canada will extend through the rest of the year. In a note to clients Friday, Zuanic said that a return to normalcy, brought forth by broader vaccination efforts, should help to perk up Canadian pot sales. 
 
Seasonality and COVID-19 aside, Zuanic notes Canadian-based licensed producers may continue to face sales headwinds as some provincial wholesalers tweak inventory requirements and cull underperforming products from store shelves. "Reported sales may be worse than what even the soft consumer data would imply," he said.