WASHINGTON —Flour production was higher in the third quarter of 2024, increasing from the same period a year earlier and hitting the highest total for any quarter since the middle of 2022.

July-September flour production was 107,408,000 cwts, up 538,000 cwts, or 0.5%, from 106,870,000 cwts a year earlier, according to data published Nov. 1 by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the US Department of Agriculture. Flour outturn was up 2,500,000 cwts, or 2.4%, from 104,908,000 cwts in the second quarter. Production in July-September was higher than any quarter since 109,859,000 cwts in July-September 2022.

Flour mills operated at 87.3% of six-day capacity in the third quarter, up from 86.9% in the third quarter last year and 85.3% in the second quarter of 2024.

Wheat grind in July-September was 232,391,000 bus, up 0.8% from the year before. Millfeed production was 1,641,584 tons, down 1.4%.

Flour milling capacity in the third quarter was 1,597,742 cwts, unchanged from a revised figure for the second quarter and little changed from 1,596,386 cwts a year earlier. Second-quarter capacity was revised downward by 4,100 cwts, from 1,601,842 cwts, as initially estimated by the USDA.

In the first nine months of 2024, flour production was 317,848,000 cwts, up 3,197,000 cwts, or 1%, from 314,651,000 in January-September 2023. Flour production was up from 2023 in each of the first three quarters of this year.

Semolina production in the third quarter was 7,886,000 cwts, up 3.2% from 7,640,000 cwts a year earlier and well above 7,332,000 cwts in the second quarter.