In Ontario as of February 2026, the caramel, chew and taffy segment of edibles grew roughly 50 percent year over year by sales value, while units sold rose only about 7.5 percent. Average price per unit in that segment was $8.30, against $6.58 for gummies. Those three numbers together say something specific: the growth is coming from price and product mix, not from more packages leaving shelves. Here is the data and what it does and does not support.
The figures
The Ontario segment data comes from Headset and was analysed by StratCann. The national category share comes from StratCann's own analysis of federal sales data.
| Measure | Figure | Period and source |
|---|---|---|
| Caramels, chews and taffy, sales growth | About 50 percent year over year | Ontario, February 2026, Headset |
| Caramels, chews and taffy, unit growth | About 7.5 percent year over year | Ontario, February 2026, Headset |
| Average price per unit, chews | $8.30 | Ontario, February 2026, Headset |
| Average price per unit, gummies | $6.58 | Ontario, February 2026, Headset |
| Edible cannabis share of total sales | 25 percent | Canada, Q2 2025, StratCann analysis |
| Extracts share | 25 percent | Canada, Q2 2025, StratCann analysis |
| Dried cannabis share | 50 percent | Canada, Q2 2025, StratCann analysis |
| Ontario market, overall | Down 11.1 percent year over year | Ontario, StratCann analysis |
Read the last row alongside the first. A segment growing about 50 percent inside a provincial market contracting 11.1 percent is a genuine shift in composition, not a rising tide.
What the arithmetic actually says
If sales value grew about 50 percent and units grew about 7.5 percent, then average revenue per unit rose by roughly 40 percent over the year. That gap is the whole story, and there are only three things that can produce it.
- Price increases on existing products. Possible, but Statistics Canada reported cannabis prices nationally down 1.1 percent over a comparable period, so broad price inflation is unlikely to be the driver.
- Mix shift within the segment. Buyers moving from lower-priced to higher-priced items inside the same category. The $8.30 against $6.58 spread between chews and gummies is exactly this kind of gap.
- New products entering at higher price points. Producers listing new formats above the segment's existing average pulls the average up without anyone paying more for the same item.
The available data cannot separate the second from the third, and we are not going to pretend it can. What it does support is the narrower claim: the caramel and chew segment is growing in value considerably faster than it is growing in volume.
What these formats actually are
The segment names describe manufacturing processes, and the differences are physical rather than a matter of branding.
- Gummies are a gelled confection, set with pectin or gelatin. The cannabis extract is incorporated into the gel before it sets. They are the largest and longest-established edible subcategory in Canada.
- Soft chews are denser and less elastic than a gum gel, typically made on a starch or gelatin base with a higher solids content.
- Caramels are made by cooking sugar with a dairy or dairy-alternative fat. The relevant compositional difference from a gel is the fat content, since cannabinoids are fat soluble rather than water soluble.
- Taffy is a pulled sugar confection, aerated by stretching. It is the smallest of the four in Ontario.
Every one of these is subject to the same federal cap: 10 mg of THC per package for edible cannabis. That limit applies regardless of format, which is why a single caramel and a bag of gummies can both be capped at the same total. Serving size and number of units per package vary; the package total does not.
Why the OCS data looks different
If you go looking for these figures in the Ontario Cannabis Store's own annual data, you will not find them broken out the same way, and it is worth knowing why.
The OCS annual data report for the 2025 calendar year lists edible subcategories as soft chews at $84.8 million, chocolate at $6.2 million, baked goods and pantry at $807,600, and hard edibles at $225,500. OCS groups gummies inside soft chews. Headset, which draws from retail point-of-sale data, separates them.
That is not a discrepancy in the data. It is two organisations drawing the category boundary in different places, and it means a figure about gummies specifically has to come from the source that distinguishes them. This is a common problem with cannabis market data in Canada and it is worth carrying into any figure you read about this category.
The OCS numbers do confirm the scale relationship: soft chews, the grouping that contains gummies, caramels and chews together, is roughly fourteen times the size of chocolate and vastly larger than baked goods or hard edibles.
The national picture
Edibles sit at about 25 percent of total medical and non-medical cannabis sales in Canada, on StratCann's Q2 2025 analysis, level with extracts and half the size of dried cannabis.
Statistics Canada's figures for the fiscal year to 31 March 2025 add a complication worth noting. Solid cannabis edibles fell 2.2 percent over that year and were the only category to decline, while inhaled extracts grew 12.8 percent. So the segment-level growth described above is happening inside a national category that has been flat to slightly down.
Both things can be true. A category can be static in total while its internal composition moves substantially, and that appears to be what is happening here.
What this does not tell you
- It does not tell you why buyers moved. Sales data records what was purchased, not the reason. Anyone attributing a cause to these figures is inferring it.
- It does not describe effects, and nothing about carrier fat, gel base or format should be read as a claim about them. What the label tells you is milligrams of THC and CBD per unit and per package, and onset timing for edibles is covered in our Ontario edibles guide.
- It is one month of one province. The February 2026 Headset figures are a snapshot. A 50 percent year-over-year figure in a segment this size can move considerably month to month.
- Price per unit is not price per milligram. An $8.30 average unit price against $6.58 says nothing about the THC content in each, and packages in this category vary in how many pieces they contain.
The short version
Caramels and chews are taking value share inside Ontario's edible category, at an average unit price about 26 percent above gummies, while the number of units sold has barely moved and the provincial market overall has contracted. That is a composition shift, which is a different thing from growth, and it is worth reading the two figures together rather than the headline one alone.
If you want the format rules behind all of this, see what the 2026 edible rules changed and, for storage at home, what child-resistant packaging actually means. For where the category sits in the wider market, see eight years legal, what the numbers say.
Our staff will read any package's milligram figures with you. Come by 811 Dundas St W, or see what we carry.
Sources
- StratCann, Life after flower: rise of the edible, citing Headset data for Ontario, February 2026: stratcann.com
- Ontario Cannabis Marketplace: By The Numbers, 1 January to 31 December 2025: doingbusinesswithocs.ca
- Statistics Canada, Control and sale of alcoholic beverages and cannabis, April 1 2024 to March 31 2025, released 5 March 2026: statcan.gc.ca
- Health Canada, Cannabis poisonings in children, on the 10 mg per package limit: canada.ca