WASHINGTON, DC, US — Production of whole wheat flour in the United States in the first three months of 2024 was 4,686,000 cwts, up 183,000 cwts, or 4.1%, from the first quarter of 2023, according to data issued May 1 by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
While hardly a dramatic increase, the gain ended a streak of six consecutive quarters in which whole wheat flour production was lower than the corresponding quarter a year earlier. The 2024 figure compared with 4,503,000 cwts in 2023, 5,250,000 cwts in 2022 and 4,860,000 cwts in 2021. Whole wheat flour production was still down 23% from the peak first-quarter production reported by the USDA – 6,122,000 cwts in 2015.
Production of whole wheat flour also was up slightly from 4,580,000 cwts in the fourth quarter of last year.
Whole wheat flour accounted for 4.4% of all first-quarter flour production, up from 4.3% in the first and fourth quarters of last year. Whole wheat’s share of total flour production fell shy of 4.4% all four quarters in 2023.
Whole wheat semolina production sunk to a new low in the first quarter, totaling only 54,000 cwts, down 50,000 cwts, or 48%, from 104,000 cwts in the first quarter last year. It was the smallest quarter on record for whole wheat semolina production. The all-time high was 339,000 cwts in the third quarter of 2015. At 54,000 cwts, whole wheat semolina production accounted for only 0.7% of total US semolina production, down from 1% in the fourth quarter and 1.2% in last year’s first quarter.
With whole wheat semolina production a minuscule figure, production of whole wheat flour ex-semolina was nearly identical to total whole wheat flour production. At 4,632,000 cwts, production of whole wheat flour ex-semolina was up 233,000, or 5%, from 4,399,000 cwts a year earlier. Without including semolina, whole wheat accounted for 4.8% of all flour production, up from 4.6% a year earlier.
