AbstractThis article looks at the evidence as to whether agribusiness manufacturers use their inventories of finished products to smooth their production processes. The data lend support to the production smoothing hypothesis for the case of condensed and evaporated milk; however, that support is weakened when seasonally adjusted data are used in the analysis. There is no evidence of production smoothing in flour milling. This negative result can be explained by the production‐to‐order characteristics of the flour milling indus