Weed Week: Toilet paper isn’t the only thing being hoarded in the pandemic

COVID-19 has given rise to some unique demand trends, with shelves of toilet paper stripped bare at supermarkets across the globe.

Other essentials such as pasta, rice, and canned beans are also proving increasingly harder to find.

But in jurisdictions where cannabis is legal, it turns out pot distributors have also been posting some strong numbers in the crisis.

According to MarketWatch, cannabis shops in the city of San Fransisco, unit sales more than doubled on Monday — just before the city implemented a three-week lockdown period.

Delivery service providers in the weed sector have also seen a sharp uptick in business.

Those numbers were backed up by photo evidence of lines outside stores and anecdotes from distributors of huge spikes in the total weight of products sold.

On reflection, we can see why. After all, if you force a cannabis aficionado to self-quarantine in their home for an indefinite period of time … yeah that makes sense.

Unfortunately, Australia’s biotech-focused cannabis sector — which is restricted to medicinal products — has not benefited from any kind of contrarian demand shift.

For the second week running, not a single stock on the list of 33 companies tracked by Stockhead posted a weekly gain.

Thirty-one of those were in the red, of which 28 companies suffered double-digit declines. Ouch.

Hemp product manufacturer Ecofibre (ASX:EOF) fell towards the bottom of the list with a weekly slide of 37 per cent.

While pot stock updates have been few and far between in the crisis, Ecofibre did release a statement on Monday saying it has “not observed any material impact directly related to this pandemic”, as it “does not have any business interests in Europe or Asia”.

On the local front, the company said its contract with Woolworths remained the primary focus. The company will sell hemp seed oil under the Woolworths Macro brand “which will be introduced to all stores in September 2020”.

Below is a summary of weekly and annual price performance for ASX-listed cannabis stocks.

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.