WASHINGTON — US flour production in 2023 fell to a 12-year low, according to data issued Feb. 1 by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the US Department of Agriculture. In the final quarter of 2023, flour production was the smallest since 2010.

At 419,757,000 cwts, production last year was down 10,527,000 cwts, or 2.4%, from the record 430,284,000 cwts in 2022. It was the smallest annual total since 411,745,000 cwts of flour were milled in 2011. For most of the period between 2012 and 2021, flour production annually hovered within 1 million cwts of 425 million each year. The year-to-year decrease of 10.5 million cwts in 2023 was the largest annual drop in 22 years, or since 2001 production dropped 16,759,000 cwts from the year before.

Wheat grind in 2023 was 903,938,000 bus, down 2.7% from 928,615,000 the year before. Millfeed production was 6,526,221 tons, down 205,750, or 3.1%, from 6,731,971 tons in 2022.

Daily 24-hour flour milling capacity in the fourth quarter (and the third) was 1,585,386 cwts, up 700 cwts from the fourth quarter of 2022 and up 400 cwts from April-June 2023.

Flour mills in 2023 operated at 86.5% of six-day capacity, down 2.1 percentage points from 88.4% in 2022 and the smallest in four years, or since 83.4% in 2019. The operating rate last year still was better than in any year between 2014 and 2019, when capacity utilization ranged from 83.4% and 86.4%.

In the fourth quarter, US flour production was 105,106,000 cwts, down 1,441,000 cwts, or 1.4%, from 106,547,000 cwts in 2022.  It was the smallest October-December aggregate since 104,792,000 cwts in 2010. The record for fourth-quarter flour production was reached in 2013 — 110,332,000 cwts. It was the record for any quarter and the only time the 110-million cwt threshold has been breached.

Bucking the overall downward flour trend last year, production of durum semolina in 2023 was 30,905,000 cwts, up 276,000 cwts, or 0.9%, from 30,629,000 in 2022. In the fourth quarter, semolina production was 7,984,000 cwts, down 35,000 cwts, or 0.4%, from 8,019,000 cwts in the fourth quarter of 2022.