Grain and Oilseed Milling
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 560 grain and oilseed milling companies in the US produce flours, edible oils, and breakfast cereals from grains and oilseeds. Firms also sell byproducts of the milling process as animal feed or fertilizer. Major product categories are flour milling, rice milling, malt manufacturing, wet corn milling, soybean and other oilseed processing, refining and blending fats and oils, and breakfast cereal manufacturing.
Shifts in Demand Due to Dietary Trends
Grain and oilseed milling companies can face swings in demand due to changing consumer diets and food fads.
Stricter Food Labeling Requirements
Grain and oilseed manufacturers must comply with a variety of food labeling regulations.
Industry size & Structure
The average grain and oilseed milling company has about 102 employees, operates at 1-2 locations, and generates $188 million in annual revenue.
- The grain and oilseed milling industry consists of about 560 companies that employ 62,400 employees and generate $105.6 billion in annual revenue.
- There are about 200 flour milling firms with over 13,900 employees and about 60 rice milling firms with about 5,300 employees.
- There are about 25 malt manufacturers with about 835 employees and about 70 breakfast cereal manufacturers with 11,900 employees.
- There are about 30 wet corn milling companies with about 7,400 employees and about 105 soybean and other oilseed processors with 9,165 employees.
- About 85 fats and oils refining and blending companies have about 9,075 employees
- The grain and oilseed milling industry is highly concentrated - the top 50 companies account for 87% of industry revenue.
- Large US flour milling companies include Ardent Mills. Archer Daniels Midland, Grain Craft, Miller Milling, Bay State Milling Co, and General Mills. Large US producers of edible oils include Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and CHS.
Industry Forecast
Grain and Oilseed Milling Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Feb 21, 2025 - Rising Payrolls
- According to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, producer prices for grain and oilseed milling firms fell 3.6% in December compared to a year ago after dropping 6.8% in the previous December-versus-December annual comparison. Producer prices have been trending downward from their peak in mid-2022 and both grain and oilseed milling inventories and shipments declined on an annual basis in November. Employment by grain and oilseed milling firms grew 4.4% year over year in December followed by a 4.6% YoY rise in average wages at food manufacturers in January to a new high of $24.08 per hour, BLS data show.
- Burger chain Steak n’ Shake has announced plans to use "100 percent beef tallow," or animal fat, for cooking its fries instead of vegetable oil, raising the question whether other fast-food chains will follow suit, Newsweek reported in February. Cooking oils made from seeds (aka seed oils) have come under attack by some health influencers and, notably, Health Secretary RFK Jr., who has proclaimed that widely-used cooking oils such as canola oil and soybean oil are toxic and posted on “X” in October "It's time to Make Frying Oil Tallow Again." Seed oils – including canola, corn, soybean, cottonseed, grapeseed, sunflower, safflower, and rice bran oils – have largely replaced tallow in American diets because they contain unsaturated fats that can decrease cholesterol levels, which should reduce the risk of heart disease. Under Kennedy, Newsweek notes, restaurant chains could come under pressure to dump seed oil in exchange for beef tallow.
- President Trump’s trade policy could present an opportunity to oilseed millers as import tariffs on vegetable oils spur the US crush industry to build new plants and expand capacity, AgWeek reports. Plans for domestic expansion have been hindered because the US market has been awash in cheaper global supplies of feedstocks like used cooking oil from China, tallow from Brazil, and canola oil from Canada. However, the USDA projects that global rapeseed oil supplies will shrink by 13% over the coming year with sunflower seed oil stocks down 24%. As US imports of vegetable oils decline, domestic producers will see increased demand and purchase more corn, soybeans, and other oilseeds from US farmers, who could see their export markets dry up if foreign nations, notably China, retaliate with tariffs of their own.
- US corn and soybean farmers could lose billions of dollars in annual production value should a new tariff-induced US-China trade war occur, according to a new study commissioned by the American Soybean and the National Corn Growers associations conducted by the World Agricultural Economic and Environmental Services. The study found “US soybean farmers (could) lose an average of $3.6 to $5.9 billion in annual production value” while “US corn farmers (could) lose an average of $0.9 to $1.4 billion in annual production value” depending on how China responds to increased US tariffs. A new trade war could cause US crop prices to fall, dramatically reduce US exports to China, and benefit growers in Brazil and Argentina, the study found. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed tariffs as high as 25% on all imported goods, which, if enacted, could trigger a trade war.
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