US milling industry outlook stable, NAMA president says
By Russell Redman
The outlook for the US milling industry remains positive despite recent economic data showing a dip in overall flour production, said Jane DeMarchi, president of the North American Millers’ Association (NAMA).
“Flour production is pretty stable,” DeMarchi said in an interview at the 2025 NAMA annual meeting, held Oct. 9-11 in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. “It does fluctuate a little bit up, a little bit down. We definitely got a bump during COVID times and immediately following COVID.”
For the 2025 second quarter, all wheat ground for flour totaled 222.939 million bushels, down 2% from 226.627 million bushels in the 2025 first quarter and down 1% from 226.006 million bushels in the 2024 second quarter, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the US Department of Agriculture. Total flour production in the 2025 second quarter came in at 102.912 million cwts, down 2% from 105.377 million cwts in the 2025 first quarter and down 2% from 104.908 million cwts in the 2024 second quarter.
“One of the things I’ve seen with the members is that they can work their way through volatility and changes in demand,” DeMarchi said. “They’re an amazingly resilient industry. Obviously, we are seeing some reduction in demand. There’s inflation, GLP-1s (weight-loss drugs) and the MAHA (make America healthy again) movement. All of these things are happening, and it’s a little bit difficult to tease out what is the biggest driver. It feels like it’s some combination of all of those things.”
Among segments, whole wheat flour production in the 2025 second quarter marked the smallest total for any quarter in the 10-plus years NASS has been gathering flour production data, down 5.9% sequentially and 2.3% year over year to 4.139 million cwts. Flour production for wheat excluding durum was down 2.1% sequentially and 2.5% year over year to 95.089 million cwts.
Durum flour and semolina production in the 2025 second quarter totaled 7.823 million cwts, down 5% from the 2025 first quarter but up 6.7% from the 2024 second quarter. Rye flour production rose 2% sequentially yet was down 9.9% year over year to 155,000 cwts.
“People may change their diet, go paleo for a short time, but ultimately will usually come back to the products that they know and love and have grown up with,” DeMarchi said.
Innovation also is brewing in the industry, notably offerings that bring more fiber and protein to products like bread and pasta.
“Some of these innovative products that have high fiber, but taste and perform like more traditional refined grains, I think there’s real opportunity there,” DeMarchi said. “Fiber is an area of a lot of interest to our aging population. We all need to eat more fiber. And I think you’ll see us and our members leaning in more on the importance of fiber.”
DeMarchi also cited a recent uptick in mill expansion activity, including the grand openings of Greenfield Milling’s new flagship flour mill in Richmond, Utah, and Star of the West’s expanded “super mill” in Ligonier, Indiana, US, as well as Mennel Milling Co.’s deal to acquire the Toledo Flour Mill of Mondelez International Inc., one of the nation’s largest flour mills.
“We’ve been really excited to see some of these new mills come online,” DeMarchi said. “Greenfield has a new facility in Utah. Ligonier, the Star of the West facility, just had their opening. And Mennel announced it’s purchasing the Mondelez flour mill. That’s just a few examples. There are a lot of exciting things happening.”
In a gathering at the NAMA annual meeting, the association’s wheat division discussed innovation, including Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp.’s HB4 drought-resilient wheat. Bioceres and the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation in late September unveiled a strategic collaboration to jointly develop and commercialize HB4 in the United States. The USDA approved Bioceres’ genetically engineered trait for HB4 wheat in August 2024, and the company secured patent protection for HB4 wheat this past March.
“We’ve been in close contact with the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation, which just signed the agreement for the licensing from Bioceres,” DeMarchi said. “We talked about where they are in the breeding process and also where Bioceres is as a company, the work that they’re doing to get approvals in international markets. And we will continue those conversations with Bioceres. Also, Corteva (Agriscience) is working on a hybrid wheat, and so we are having engagement with them as well.”
DeMarchi said NAMA members are intrigued by the potential benefits of genetically modified wheat.
“I think our members recognize the value of innovation, but they are mindful that we need to be in alignment with our customers,” she said. “One of the things I appreciate about the approach of the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation (with HB4 wheat) is that they’re taking a very step-by-step approach in terms of developing the varieties, making sure the varieties really perform. And one of the things we’ve been telling our members is, ‘Listen, this is not going to happen next week.’ There will be time for us to see if there’s real value here for drought resistance.”
This article has been republished from The World Grain.