Analysis
NAICS 311211 is the 2022 national industry for flour milling, part of 31121 (Flour Milling and Malt Manufacturing). Census lists 34 example activities under it in the official index.
By establishments it ranks 1st of the 3 codes at this level within Flour Milling and Malt Manufacturing, with 71.8% of them.
County Business Patterns counts 333 US establishments in this code in 2023, employing 14,916 people at an average annual payroll of $68,394 per employee (50th percentile of national industries). 17% of the establishments have fewer than five employees, which points to larger operations.
Census lists 5 related activities that belong elsewhere, most often in 311230, 311824, 311212 and 311221. Businesses that do several things are classified by their primary activity, the one that generates the most value, so check those boundaries before settling on this code.
Its index entries, the activities Census uses to assign businesses to this code, include barley flour manufacturing, batters, prepared, made in flour mills, blended flour made in flour mills and brewers' and distillers' flakes and grits, corn…, among 34 in all.
Its goods appear in 43 statistical lines of the US tariff schedule, mostly under headings 1103 (cereal groats, meal and pellets), 1104 (cereal grains otherwise worked (for example, hulled…) and 2302 (bran, sharps (middlings) and other residues, whether or not…). That link is how import data is matched to domestic producers, for example in trade-remedy cases.
Official definition
This U.S. industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in (1) milling flour or meal from grains (except rice) or vegetables and/or (2) milling flour and preparing flour mixes or doughs.
Source: US Census Bureau, NAICS 2022 Manual.
Not this code if…
| The business mainly does | Use instead |
|---|---|
| Preparing breakfast cereals from flour milled in the same establishment | 311230 Breakfast Cereal Manufacturing |
| Manufacturing prepared flour mixes or doughs from flour ground elsewhere | 311824 Dry Pasta, Dough, and Flour Mixes Manufacturing from Purchased Flour |
| Milling rice or cleaning and polishing rice | 311212 Rice Milling |
| Wet milling corn and vegetables | 311221 Wet Corn Milling and Starch Manufacturing |
| Crushing soybeans and extracting soybean oil | 311224 Soybean and Other Oilseed Processing |
Index entries (34)
- Barley flour manufacturing
- Batters, prepared, made in flour mills
- Blended flour made in flour mills
- Brewers' and distillers' flakes and grits, corn, manufacturing
- Buckwheat flour manufacturing
- Bulgur (flour) manufacturing
- Cereal grain flour manufacturing
- Cereal grain germ manufacturing
- Corn flour manufacturing
- Corn meal made in flour mills
- Doughs, prepared, made in flour mills
- Durum flour manufacturing
- Farina (except breakfast food) made in flour mills
- Flour mills, cereals grains (except breakfast cereals, rice)
- Flour mixes made in flour mills
- Flour, blended, prepared, or self-rising (except rice), made in flour mills
- Fruit flour, meal, and powders, manufacturing
- Graham flour manufacturing
- Grain mills (except animal feed, breakfast cereal, rice)
- Grits and flakes, corn brewer's, manufacturing
- Hominy grits (except breakfast food), manufacturing
- Meal, corn, for human consumption made in flour mills
- Mixes, flour (e.g., biscuit, cake, doughnut, pancake) made in flour mills
- Oat flour manufacturing
- Potato flour manufacturing
- Prepared flour mixes made in flour mills
- Rye flour manufacturing
- Semolina flour manufacturing
- Sorghum flour manufacturing
- Vegetable flour manufacturing
- Vegetable flour, meal, and powders, made in flour mills
- Wheat bran manufacturing
- Wheat flour manufacturing
- Wheat germ manufacturing