“The provincial lockdowns were more impactful, particularly in Canada, than we initially expected,” Aphria Chief Financial Officer Carl Merton said on a post-earnings call.
Aphria’s earnings are “setting the tone for what is going to be a difficult earnings season for the Canadian producers,” Stifel analyst Andrew Carter wrote in a note.Article content Aphria said provincial cannabis boards, which buy cannabis from private companies for sales at government-run retail stores, have also been lowering their inventory – a practice known as “destocking.”It said provincial governments had lowered their orders for cannabis and returned product worth around $5 million, signalling that market growth is expected to be weaker than previously forecast.