Tortilla Manufacturing in the United States (NAICS 31183): An Investor's Primer

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code 31183 is the five-digit industry that covers U.S. establishments primarily engaged in making tortillas.

1. Overview

Tortillas are one of the quiet success stories of American food: what was once an ethnic-aisle specialty is now the second best-selling bread in the country, behind sliced loaf bread and ahead of bagels, buns, and rolls [1]. For an investor, the appeal is a defensive staple with steady, above-bread growth. The catch is that there is no large, U.S.-listed pure-play tortilla company to buy — the category is led by one Mexican multinational (Gruma, maker of Mission) and rounded out by diversified bakers and a long tail of privately held regional producers.

This page is a rollup. NAICS 31183 is a single-child industry: it contains exactly one detailed (six-digit) industry, 311830 Tortilla Manufacturing, and the two are effectively identical in scope, figures, and economics. This page gives the level's own ground-truth federal statistics and a compact summary. For the full detail — the investable-universe table, brand-by-brand ownership, production processes, and the deeper analysis — see the child primer, 311830.

2. What's inside — the child industries

At the five-digit level, NAICS 31183 breaks down into a single six-digit child:

Because there is only one child, the five-digit industry and the six-digit industry are one and the same. The federal statistics agencies report the same receipts, firm counts, and concentration ratios at both levels. So everything true of 311830 is true of 31183.

Scope reminder. The industry covers establishments primarily making corn and wheat-flour tortillas sold to grocers, foodservice operators, and food companies [2]. Corn tortillas start from masa, made by nixtamalization (cooking and soaking corn in alkaline lime solution); wheat-flour production mixes flour, water, fats, salt, and leavening into dough before baking [3][4]. The industry excludes several adjacent things that people often lump in with "tortillas": tortilla chips (NAICS 311919, Other Snack Food Manufacturing), frozen tortilla dishes (311412) and canned versions (311422), corn masa and wheat flour milling (311221 and 311211), and tortillas made and sold on-site by restaurants or supermarket bakeries (foodservice/retail, not manufacturing) [2].

3. How big it is (this level's rollup figures)

Because 31183 equals its one child, the level's figures are the child's figures. Our ground-truth federal statistics:

That works out to roughly $14.7 million in receipts per firm (2022) and an average wage near $47,000 per worker (2023 payroll ÷ employees) [5][6] — a capital-lighter, lower-wage food-manufacturing profile. The establishment distribution illustrates the industry's long tail: of the 428 establishments, 136 had fewer than five employees, while seven employed 500–999 [6].

Undercount caveat. These figures understate how many tortillas Americans actually make and eat. Neighborhood tortillerías, supermarket in-store bakeries, and restaurant on-site production are classified under retail bakeries, grocery, or foodservice — not here; tortilla-chip volume sits in snack-food manufacturing (311919); and very small operators can fall below survey thresholds. Private market-research estimates that measure retail sales value (sometimes bundling wraps, flatbreads, or chips) run higher — around $6.5 billion for the manufacturing industry and $8–9 billion for the broader "tortilla market" [7][8]. We prefer the federal $5.93 billion for the manufacturing industry itself, with the caveat that true U.S. tortilla output is larger.

Concentration. This is a top-heavy industry: the four largest firms took 62.5% of revenue in 2022; the top eight, 69.5%; the top 20, 80%; and the top 50, 90.1% [9]. (The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, a standard concentration measure, is suppressed in the federal data and so is not reported here [9].) A handful of national manufacturers dominate, with hundreds of small regional players sharing the remaining ~10%.

4. Investable universe — where value concentrates

Because the level equals its one child, value concentrates exactly as it does in 311830. There is no large, dedicated, U.S.-exchange-listed pure-play tortilla company. Public exposure runs through one foreign-listed leader plus diversified food companies for whom tortillas are a small slice:

• Gruma, S.A.B. de C.V. — the category leader (brands Mission, Guerrero, Calidad; 21 U.S. tortilla and related-product plants via Gruma Corporation; also owns six Azteca Milling corn-flour plants). Trades on the Mexican exchange (BMV: GRUMAB) and as a thin U.S. over-the-counter ADR (American Depositary Receipt) GMKKY/GPAGF after delisting its full NYSE ADR in 2015 and terminating its sponsored ADR program [10][11][12]. Gruma USA reported $3.45 billion in sales for FY2025, representing 54% of consolidated Gruma [10].
• Diversified public owners — Grupo Bimbo (BMBOY), PepsiCo (PEP, owner of grain-free brand Siete since Jan 2025), Flowers Foods (FLO, owner of Papa Pita since 2023), and General Mills (GIS, Old El Paso) [13][14][15].
• Private owners — Olé Mexican Foods (La Banderita, a ~$600M brand), El Milagro, Flagship Food Group (La Tortilla Factory and Tortilla King), and a long tail of regional and private-label producers [8][16][17].

See 311830 for the full company table with tickers, scale, and private-owner detail.

5. How the money works

Tortilla manufacturing is a high-volume, thin-margin commodity conversion business: buy corn (as masa or masa flour), wheat flour, oil, and packaging; convert them on continuous ovens into a perishable product; and sell it. The key levers, tuned to this category:

• Volume × price/mix. Watching volume and price separately tells you whether growth is real demand or just cost pass-through. Gruma USA's 2025 sales volume fell 3% year over year, attributed to foodservice price sensitivity and weak consumer confidence [10].
• Input-cost spread. Corn and wheat are traded commodities; margins swell or compress with grain, oil, energy, and freight, and pricing power on plain tortillas is limited by private label. At consolidated Gruma, corn represented 33% of 2025 cost of sales, wheat flour 9%, and energy approximately 5% [18].
• Distribution as the moat. Fresh tortillas are perishable and low in value per pound, so shipping them far is uneconomic. Winners run dense regional plant networks feeding direct-store-delivery (DSD) systems [8][10].
• Premium niches carry the margin. Better-for-you formats — grain-free, low-carb, high-protein, gluten-free — command higher prices and are where innovation dollars flow.

6. Demand drivers

• Demographics. The U.S. Hispanic population grew about 26% from 2010 to 2022, a durable demand base. The Census Bureau estimated just over 65 million Hispanic residents in 2023 (19.5% of the U.S. population), accounting for nearly 71% of total population growth — though tortilla consumption growth increasingly comes from non-Hispanic households [19][20].
• Mainstreaming. Tortillas have crossed over as wraps, pizza bases, and breakfast burritos across all demographics, lifting them to the No. 2 bread slot [1].
• Health and diet trends. Low-carb, high-protein, and grain-free eating has spawned a premium segment; manufacturers now court GLP-1 (the weight-loss/diabetes drug class, e.g., Ozempic) users with low-calorie positioning [8].
• Foodservice. Quick-service and fast-casual Mexican chains are a large but more cyclical channel; softness there was the main drag on the leader's 2024–2025 U.S. volume. Household spending on food away from home increased only 0.3% in 2024, consistent with a slowing restaurant environment [10][21].

7. Regulation

Tortilla making is regulated as food manufacturing, primarily by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration): preventive-controls rules under FSMA (the Food Safety Modernization Act), including hazard analysis, preventive controls, allergen controls, sanitation, verification, supplier programs, and recall plans [22]. The live issue is folic-acid fortification of corn masa flour (a B-vitamin that reduces neural-tube birth defects), permitted up to 0.7 mg per pound and now becoming mandatory in places — California enacted AB 1830, requiring covered corn masa flour to contain 0.7 mg folic acid per pound beginning January 1, 2026 [23][24]. Observers expect California's rule to influence national practice [25]. Major producers have moved ahead of the rules — Gruma reports roughly 97% of its U.S. retail portfolio is already fortified [3]. Burden is moderate and mostly a compliance cost, not a barrier.

8. Consolidation

Structure is a concentrated leader plus a fragmented tail, consistent with the 62.5% top-four share [9]. Mission brand alone has led the U.S. hard/soft tortilla and taco-kit category with a share above 39%, and secondary estimates put Gruma's overall U.S. tortilla share around 44% [26][8]. Consolidation runs on two tracks: strategics buying fast-growing "better-for-you" brands (the signal deal was PepsiCo's ~$1.2 billion acquisition of Siete Foods, closed January 2025), and regional roll-ups by family- and private-equity-owned producers chasing distribution density [14][8][17].

9. Risks

• Commodity/input volatility — corn, wheat, oil, energy, and freight move margins directly, with limited pricing power on plain product. Corn producers must additionally control mycotoxins, pesticide residues, and unapproved genetically modified material [18].
• Private-label and premium squeeze — store brands compress the commodity core while well-capitalized premium entrants intensify competition at the profitable end.
• Perishability and logistics — short shelf life and low value density require costly regional plant-and-DSD networks.
• Labor and distribution classification — route systems create classification risk where drivers or distributors are treated as independent contractors; Gruma warns that reclassifying Mission's independent distributors as employees could produce additional costs and operational disruption [27].
• Regulatory drift — spreading state fortification mandates add cost.
• For public investors specifically — the cleanest pure-play (Gruma) is a foreign-listed, peso-exposed multinational whose U.S. OTC ADR is thinly traded [12].

10. How to invest and outlook

Because 31183 is its one child, the routes in are 311830's routes. Public markets: the closest pure-play is Gruma (peso-exposed, thin U.S. ADR); diversified exposure comes through Grupo Bimbo, PepsiCo, Flowers Foods, or General Mills, where the tortilla thesis is diluted [11][14][15]. Private markets are where most of the industry lives — buying, building, or lending to regional manufacturers and premium startups, with strategics as the natural exit buyers [14][8].

The base case is a defensive staple with steady low-to-mid single-digit growth, tilting toward premium mix. The strongest tailwinds are the health-forward and GLP-1-adjacent premium segments; near-term profitability hinges on the grain-and-oil cost cycle and foodservice recovery after 2024–2025's softness; and consolidation should continue, over time creating the scaled, more investable platforms public markets currently lack [8][10].

For the full analysis — complete investable-universe table, brand ownership, operating economics, and deeper treatment of every section above — see the child primer, NAICS 311830.

---

Sources

1. Tortilla Industry Association, "About / Tortilla Facts" (tortillas as the second-most-popular bread in America), accessed 2026. https://www.tortilla-info.com/default.asp?contentID=3
2. U.S. Census Bureau, "2022 NAICS Definition — 311830 Tortilla Manufacturing" (scope and exclusions), accessed 2026. https://siccode.com/naics-code/311830/tortilla-manufacturing
3. Food Fortification Initiative / peer-reviewed literature, "Corn Masa in the United States: Supply Chain, Market, and Fortification" (nixtamalization, Gruma fortification share), 2025. https://ffinetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CornMasaintheUnitedStates-SupplyChainMarketandFortification.pdf
4. Tortilla Industry Association, "Evaluating wheat and corn flours" technical presentation (flour production process), accessed 2026. https://www.tortilla-info.com/downloads/AC%2022%20and%20Tech%2021/Day%201%20Session%207%20-%20Boyacioglu%20Evaluating%20wheat%20and%20corn%20flours.pdf
5. U.S. Census Bureau, "2022 Economic Census — Industry Statistics, NAICS 311830" (receipts $5,925,849 thousand; 402 firms), 2022. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
6. U.S. Census Bureau, "County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 311830" (428 establishments; 21,078 employees; $984,190 thousand annual payroll; establishment size distribution), 2023. https://data.census.gov/table/CBP2023.CB2300CBP?codeset=naics~311830&g=010XX00US
7. IBISWorld, "Tortilla Manufacturing in the US — Industry Report (NAICS 311830)," 2025–2026. https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/tortilla-production/269/
8. The Better Peer, "Unwrapping a $10B Battlefield: The Most Underrated Category in American Grocery" (market size, Gruma share, private label, La Banderita, premium trends), 2025. https://www.thebetterpeer.com/post/the-most-underrated-category-in-american-grocery
9. U.S. Census Bureau, "2022 Economic Census — Concentration of Largest Firms, NAICS 311830" (CR4 62.5%, CR8 69.5%, CR20 80%, CR50 90.1%; HHI suppressed), 2022. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
10. GRUMA, S.A.B. de C.V., 2025 Annual Report (U.S. operations, brands, plants, volume, margins, distribution, competitors, seasonality), 2025. https://www.gruma.com/media/732276/gruma_reporte_anual_2025_ingl_s_-_version_final_con_anexos.pdf
11. Wikipedia, "Gruma" (brands, U.S. plants, listings, NYSE ADR delisting 2015), accessed 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruma
12. StockAnalysis, "Gruma (GMKKY) — OTC quote and profile" (U.S. OTC ADR trading; GMKKY/GPAGF), accessed 2026. https://stockanalysis.com/quote/otc/GMKKY/
13. Wikipedia, "Bimbo Bakeries USA" (Grupo Bimbo ownership; tortillas/flatbreads; BMV: BIMBO, OTC ADR BMBOY), accessed 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbo_Bakeries_USA
14. PepsiCo, Inc., "PepsiCo Completes Acquisition of Siete Foods" ($1.2 billion; closed Jan 17, 2025; grain-free tortillas), 2025. https://www.pepsico.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025/pepsico-completes-acquisition-of-siete-foods
15. Flowers Foods, Inc., 2024 Form 10-K (Papa Pita acquisition for $274.8 million), 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1128928/000095017025022243/flo-20241228.htm
16. Olé Mexican Foods, "Our Story / Brands" (La Banderita, Olé, La Centroamericana, Verolé; founded 1988, Norcross, GA), accessed 2026. https://olemex.com/our-story/
17. Business Wire, "Tortilla King Announces Investment by Flagship Food Group" (Flagship ownership of La Tortilla Factory and Tortilla King), 2021. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210727005183/en/Tortilla-King-Announces-Investment-by-Flagship-Food-Group
18. GRUMA, S.A.B. de C.V., 2025 Annual Report (cost of sales breakdown: corn 33%, wheat 9%, energy 5%; commodity and contamination risks), 2025. https://www.gruma.com/media/732276/gruma_reporte_anual_2025_ingl_s_-_version_final_con_anexos.pdf
19. Future Market Insights / U.S. Census demographic data as cited in tortilla demand analyses (U.S. Hispanic population +26% 2010–2022), 2025. https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/united-states-tortilla-market
20. U.S. Census Bureau, "Vintage 2023 Population Estimates" (65 million Hispanic residents, 19.5% of population, 71% of population growth), 2024. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/population-estimates-characteristics.html
21. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey (household food-away-from-home spending $3,945 in 2024, +0.3%), 2025. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.htm
22. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "FSMA Final Rule for Preventive Controls for Human Food" (hazard analysis, preventive controls, allergen controls, sanitation, verification, supplier programs, recall plans), accessed 2026. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/fsma-final-rule-preventive-controls-human-food
23. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Fortifying Corn Masa Flour Products with Folic Acid" (permitted up to 0.7 mg/lb), accessed 2026. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/fortifying-corn-masa-flour-products-folic-acid
24. California State Legislature, Assembly Bill 1830 (corn masa fortification requirement effective January 1, 2026; 0.7 mg folic acid per pound), 2024. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1830
25. BakeryandSnacks, "California tortilla rule on folic acid could reshape US fortification policy," 2026. https://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Article/2026/04/01/california-tortilla-rule-on-folic-acid-could-reshape-us-fortification-policy/
26. Food Business News, "Gruma USA feels impact of decreased foodservice volume" (Q3 2024 U.S. results; share figures), 2024. https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/27061-gruma-usa-feels-impact-of-decreased-foodservice-volume
27. GRUMA, S.A.B. de C.V., 2025 Annual Report (independent distributor reclassification risk), 2025. https://www.gruma.com/media/732276/gruma_reporte_anual_2025_ingl_s_-_version_final_con_anexos.pdf