SIC 5153 Grain and Field Beans

SIC 5153

This industry classification is comprised of establishments engaged in buying and/or marketing grain, dry beans, soybeans, and other inedible beans. Also included are country grain elevators, terminal elevators, and other merchants involved in marketing grain. Establishments primarily involved in the wholesale distribution of field and garden seeds are in SIC 5191: Farm Supplies.

NAICS CODE(S)

422510

Grain and Field Bean Wholesalers

A total of 6,401 establishments were classified in this industry in 2003. Their combined sales were estimated at $62 million. They employed almost 54,000 workers and posted an annual payroll of $1.8 million. Average number of workers per establishment totaled about nine, and average sales per establishment was approximately $17 million.

Leading states in 2003, as measured by number of establishments and value of sales, were Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Two other states with high sales' volume, despite relatively small numbers of establishments, were Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, and Michigan.

Worldwide, the grain trade peaked in 1979 at 240 million metric tons. During the 1980s and early 1990s, however, both U.S. grain buyers and sellers suffered from market stagnation. Foreign policy decisions led to grain embargoes restricting the ability of U.S. merchants to peddle grains in some overseas markets. In 1992, Fortune reported that approximately half of the country's grain elevator and terminal capacity had been idled.

By the mid-1990s the condition of the industry had improved. The grain market of 1996 was the strongest since the 1970s, according to The Wall Street Journal. The failure of the winter wheat crop left supplies in storage at low levels, and high demand from importers like China pushed corn and wheat prices to record highs that year. The booming prices caused financial disaster, though, for farmers and elevators that had signed hedge-to-arrive contracts. Countrymark Cooperative Inc. of Indiana was embroiled in court cases as a result of these instruments.

The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, or the so-called "freedom to farm" legislation, phased out farm subsidies over a seven-year period. It allowed farmers to grow whatever crops were profitable on the market, rather than restricting what they could plant or forcing them to leave some of their land unplanted. Grain storage facilities anticipated changes to...