Australia’s Office of Drug Control (ODC) has released 2024 data on legal cannabis-related import and export activities in the country.

The ODC regulates and monitors the cultivation, import, export and manufacture of controlled substances to comply with Australia’s obligations under International Drug Conventions, including cannabis for medicinal purposes.

The updated data reveals the total quantity of cannabis produced in Australia in 2024 was 41,328 kilograms; up significantly from 26,593 kilograms in 2023.

However, the total quantity of cannabis imported into Australia under (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 (PI Regulations) was also up sharply; from 44,573 kilograms in 2023 to 77,406 kilograms in 2024. The country that stood out head and shoulders above others for exports to Australia was Canada. In 2023, 35,941 kilograms of Canadian cannabis was imported into Australia, jumping to 62,111 kilograms in 2024.

According to Prohibition Partners’ Global Cannabis Report: 5th Edition released early this year, Canadian imports have been a thorn in the side of Australia cultivators/producers who claim:

“… that they are competitively disadvantaged as importers are using a loophole in which lower quality and lower cost products, imported from Canada, are being dumped in the market through GMP-compliant packaging facilities.”

After Canada, the countries exporting the largest quantities of cannabis into Australia in 2024 were South Africa (4,992 kilograms), Czechia (2,400 kilograms) and Denmark (2,110 kilograms). Czechia’s export total for 2024 came after no product entered Australia from that source in 2022 and 2023.

On the Australia export side of things, those figures rose too, with 3,312 kilograms exported in 2024, up from 2,066 kilograms in 2023.

Under the ODC’s definition, cannabis is considered the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant (excluding the seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the tops) from which the resin has not been extracted.

More cannabis data from the ODC can be viewed here. The ODC has noted data for 2025 will not be available until the 3rd quarter of 2026.

At the time of publishing, the ODC’s list of approved medicinal cannabis cultivators and producers in Australia indicated 41 companies with licenses. But that may not be complete as it only lists licensees who have consented for their information to be published.

Medicinal cannabis was legalised at the federal level in Australia in February 2016 through the Narcotic Drugs Amendment Act 2016.