Posted on February, 4, 2025 at 05:04 pm
Whole wheat flour production in 2024 was 18.23 million cwts, up 246,000 cwts, or 1%, from the low of 17.984 million cwts set in 2023, according to data published Feb. 3 by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
While up only modestly, the gain from 2023 meant the end of a six-year streak of whole wheat production falling from the year before. During that period, whole wheat outturn tumbled 20%, to 17.984 million cwts in 2023 from 22.519 million cwts in 2017. The record for whole wheat flour production during the period the data have been tracked by NASS was 24.115 million cwts in 2015.
At 18.23 million cwts in 2024, whole wheat flour production accounted for 4.3% of total US flour production (425.179 million cwts), unchanged from 2023, down from 4.5% in 2022 and well below the peak of 5.7% in 2015.
While up for the year, flour production in the fourth quarter fell a bit from a year earlier. At 4.548 million cwts, October-December production of whole wheat flour was down 32,000 cwts, or 0.7%, from 4.58 million in the same period in 2023. Production was 4.741 million cwts in the final quarter of 2022.
Production was down 2.8% from 4.681 million cwts in July-September 2024.
Whole wheat flour production in the fourth quarter held a 4.2% share of the total flour market, down from 4.3% in the fourth quarter last year and 4.4% in the third quarter of 2024.
Whole wheat semolina production in 2024 was 289,000 cwts, down 23% from 375,000 cwts in 2023 and down from 422,000 cwts in 2022.
Fourth-quarter whole wheat semolina production was 70,000 cwts, down 6,000 cwts, or 8%, from 76,000 cwts in the same quarter in 2023. Production was down 16,000 cwts from the third quarter.
Fourth-quarter whole wheat semolina outturn accounted for 0.8% of total US semolina production, down from 1% in the last quarter of 2023 and down from 1.1% in the third quarter.
Production of whole wheat flour excluding semolina in 2024 was 17.941 million, up 1.9% from 17.609 million cwts in 2023 but below 18.735 million cwts in 2022.
Fourth-quarter whole wheat flour ex-semolina production was 4.478 million, down 26,000 cwts, or 0.6%, from 4.504 million cwts in the last quarter last year. Production in October-December 2022 was 4.621 million cwts. Production was down 2.5% from 4.595 million cwts in the third quarter of 2024.
Whole wheat accounted for 4.5% of the total flour ex-semolina market in the fourth quarter, down from 4.6% a year earlier and in the third quarter of 2024.
Source: World Grain