Modest rebound in key US flour intake measure

Per capita consumption of flour edged upward in 2024, according to data from the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture. At 128.9 pounds, disappearance of flour per capita last year was up 0.7 pounds, or 0.6%, from 128.2 pounds in 2023.

While up from the year before, per capita flour consumption remained just above the lowest levels in about four decades. Per capita flour consumption of 128.9 pounds was the second smallest, exceeding only 2023, since 125.6 pounds in 1986. The 2024 total was 17.8 pounds, or 12%, smaller than the recent peak of 146.8 pounds in 1997. Compared to the median figure of 134.7 pounds in the years spanning 1986-2024, last year’s figure fell shy by 5.8 pounds, or 4.3%.

Accounting for the year-to-year increase in per capita consumption were gains in flour production and imports, offset partly by an increase in exports. Flour production last year was 425.179 million cwts, up 5.181 million cwts, or 1.2%, from 2023.

US-per-capita-flour-2024_SOSLAND-PUBLISHING-CO._e-copy.jpgCredit: ©SOSLAND PUBLISHING CO.
Imports of flour and semolina, as well as pasta, bulgur and couscous, jumped 2.273 million cwts to a record high 21.007 million cwts, a 12% gain from the year before. Imports were up 87% from 2010, a time roughly 11 million cwts of flour and related products were shipped into the United States each year.

Overall, flour supplies in 2024 were 446.186 million cwts, up 7.454 million cwts, or 1.7%, from 2023. Flour exports were 4.648 million cwts last year, up 870,000 cwts, or 23%, from the year before. Exports of flour products were basically flat at 2.979 million cwts, down 2,000 from 2023.

Overall domestic disappearance of flour last year was 438.559 million cwts, up 6.587 million cwts, or 1.5%, from 431.972 million the year before. Domestic usage was the second highest on record, eclipsed only by 442.123 million cwts in 2022. In 1997, when per capita flour consumption hit an all-time high, total flour disappearance was 400.619 million cwts.

Sapping the effects of this disappearance increase on per capita consumption, the US population in 2024 climbed 0.9%, to 340.102 million. It was the largest year-to-year population increase in 17 years. The previous five years, the annual US population increase was 0.6%.

Tags: flour, USA