U.S. Flour Production Declines for the Fourth Consecutive Year: Q3 2025 Results
According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), U.S. mills produced 4.819 million tons of flour in the third quarter of 2025. This is a decrease of 53.4 thousand tons, or 1.1%, compared to the same period in 2024, when 4.872 million tons of flour were produced.
This is reported by AgroReview
Production Metrics and Capacity Trends
Although production volumes for the reporting quarter increased by 150.5 thousand tons (3.2%) compared to the second quarter of 2025, this is the lowest figure for the third quarter since 2021, when 4.815 million tons were recorded. The total flour production in the U.S. for the first three quarters of 2025 amounted to 14.266 million tons, which is 151 thousand tons (1%) less than from January to September 2024 (14.417 million tons).
The daily capacity of the mills during this period was 72,695 tons, which is 99.5 tons more than in the third quarter of 2024, and 553 tons more compared to the second quarter of 2025. Considering a six-day work week and 77 working days in the quarter, the mills operated at 86.1% of their daily capacity, which is more than one percentage point lower than last year’s level (87.2%), but higher than in the second quarter of the current year (84%).
Breakdown by Flour Types
Production of semolina from hard wheat in the third quarter of 2025 was 350 thousand tons, which is 7.6 thousand tons (2.1%) less than in the same period of 2024 (357.7 thousand tons). In the second quarter, this figure was 354.8 thousand tons. Excluding semolina production, the total flour produced in the U.S. for the third quarter was 4.468 million tons, which is 45.7 thousand tons (1%) less than in 2024 (4.514 million tons).
A significant decrease was observed in the production of whole grain flour, which amounted to 197.4 thousand tons in the third quarter of 2025. This is a decrease of 14.9 thousand tons (7%) compared to the same period last year (212.3 thousand tons).
At the same time, production of rye flour remained almost unchanged: 7.12 thousand tons were produced in the third quarter, which is only slightly less than in July-September 2024 (7.17 thousand tons).
“The release of data for the third quarter was initially scheduled by the USDA for November 3, but was delayed due to the government shutdown.”